


Voltron Coran's Squad Logbook 2

by Stestylius



Series: Voltron Coran's Squad [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Gen, the story is between oc and canons from the series, they will be developping feeling for each other later on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 43,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21976420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stestylius/pseuds/Stestylius
Summary: The girls manage to get back aboard the Castle of Lions. Their next move against Zarkon needs to be well thought and what will happen next?
Relationships: Shiro x OC, keith x oc, kuron x oc, lance x oc
Series: Voltron Coran's Squad [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1334512
Kudos: 3





	1. Leila's Vlog

**Author's Note:**

> Logbook 2 is about to start! Have a good reading!

**LEILA’S VLOG**

“Are you ready to go, Leila?” Coran asked from the other side of the monitor. The blonde looked at the lens’ camera refocusing on her figure. The zoom went away a little to have a decent view of the Earthling. 

“I guess I can say yes?” She said to Coran. who smiled at her. 

“Remember Leila. You tell us about yourself, family, friends and some adventures you went through the whole time you spent with us so far. Do you get the idea of what I am saying?” 

“Yes, I do.” Leila said with a deadpan tone. “I’m not a kid anymore. I know the drill.” 

“Alrighty then. Camera’s all yours.” 

The camera starts to film on the moment Leila started to straighten herself up on the chair. joining her hands together, clearing her throat. 

“Hello guys. Future explorers as Coran’s introduced us as, my name is Leila Gardner, 17 years old. I’m an Earthling, like the five paladins. My role among the crew on the ship is the defense technician. I was assigned to this post because some trick or two I learned from Pidge when we were at the Garrison. She is way more tech guru than I am. Inside this big chest hides a tech savvy I owe to one of my old teachers. But I still consider myself a beginner.” 

She played with her hair with her fingers before her attention was brought back to the lens. The camera approached slightly. 

“I never really expected to be a part of this intergalactic war thing. The night Shiro came back on Earth, I followed my gut and went after Hunk, Lance and Pidge.” 

She thought with her finger on her bottom lip. 

“If this wasn’t from Keith’s comment on his overbike, I would have almost fell off. Lance didn’t quite catch the meaning of his words. He may be used to my sarcastic moments, but sometimes he sounds dumb.” 

A muffled ‘HEY” came from behind the door of the recording room. Coran had to shoo the others away from the room. He locked the room and went back to the camera, giving the okay so Leila could keep going. 

“I was happy to come to Arus for a sudden stop. If it wasn’t for Lance’s joke in the cockpit…” 

_ As the turbulence made the blue lion shake like crazy, Lance complained about Hunk’s breath. _

_ “First, let’s find out where we are heading. Lance?” Shiro looked at the 17-year-old student sitting at the command of the alien spacecraft.  _

_ “I don’t know. I’m sorry. The lion’s not talking to me anymore.” Lance said as he suddenly got the eyes of the team on his back. Leila was looking at him as well. “Oh wait wait wait… I think I hear something.”  _

_ “I think I hear it too.” Keith commented.  _

_ “It’s kind of a high-pitched squeal?” Hunk interrogated.  _

_ A smirk drew itself on the Cuban’s face as Leila put herself in the back of the cockpit, trying to hide her laughter. It was impossible. The four others only groan at the sudden reveal of the noise. It was a fart.  _

_ “OH COME ON LANCE!”  _

Leila played with her hair again as she looked with a happy expression. 

“I have to say the words wouldn’t come out of my mouth when we met Coran and Princess Allura. She is a beautiful princess of any type of fairy tale a little girl would dream of.” 

“Also, the other thing that got my attention is the other comer. Nakia was welcomed inside the castle by the princess only a good  forthy hour we spent on Arus before the first attempt of attack of Sendak against us. The only thing I struck a conversation with her was about jewelries she’d never seen before. The Arusians were the ones who gave it to us as a present… of pure sacrifice. I won’t go into details.” Her face grew slowly paler. 

“That aside though, we became already best buddies in a matter of time. Did you know her swords skills can riva Keith’s? For a woman, she’s quick and BAM the Galra dude was knocked out hard.” 

“Leila, do you like Nakia a lot as a friend?” Coran asked behind the camera. 

Leila blushed a bit and scratched the cheek with her index. 

“I have to admit she was the only female friend I was able to get on the first time we landed on Arus. When I met her, I was sure she felt familiar to someone I already met before on Earth. She is similar to someone else I guess.” 

The blonde closed her eyes and put a hand on her chest to remember the good times she had so far already with the other members of the squad. They had been through so much to get together. Their rescue and their team building. Their first mental exercise. 

_ “Remember ladies, this training was made especially only for the paladins. You insisted you wanted to follow the same steps as the newly chosen ones. I hope you can deal with it.” Coran said from the balcony as the girls were sitting in a circle.  _

_ The paladins and the princess were with Coran in the upper floor to see what they will be seeing from the girls’ minds. Closing their eyes for further concentration, they took each other’s hands for better energy channeling.  _

_ Clara imagined herself with her crew she had been with for her first outside mission. Her memory of her telling her friend Ana to not worry about the maneuvers.  _

  
  


_ Roe was thinking of the simplest thing ever. Dogs. Flying dogs from Demelvia. Her dog from Earth. Any type of breed existing in the whole universe. The paladins sweatdropped. Roe was too innocent for this world.  _

_ Nakia was thinking of her family of all her might. Her sleeping mother, her father back at the guild and her big brother searching away with the princesses to undo the curse of her mom. It made her feel stronger as she was thinking of her knight friends Kami and Masami. _

_ Leila was the least lucky. A bad thought passed through only to be brought back by Lance’s voice to tell her she wasn’t alone. Her family was here with her where she was standing.  _

_ Looking up, she saw her friends standing along with her in the astral plane, hand in hand. Their connection was as strong as the paladins were as they formed Voltron to defeat evil. Her memory of her mentor, Mrs. Reid, Lance’s family and lastly her eyes on Keith for her forever recklessness making her fall for the half-galra even more.  _

Her eyes were watering a bit but she dried it away. She blushed slightly embarrassed of the remembrance. Coran brushed it off and encouraged her to continue. 

“There’s a slight thing no one will know except me and Coran. I know the deepest secret Lance never wanted me to reveal to anyone since we were kids.” 

_ Sitting on the stairs of the main entrance, Leila was brewing the nectar of the gods, what Coran called it, Lance was next to her with his grimacing face.  _

_ “I miss home.” He said.  _

_ “Me too. I miss your ma...your pa… Rachel… Veronica… Everyone.” Leila said as she looked at the brewing.  _

_ “We still have each other.” Lance mentioned.  _

_ “Yeah that’s right.”  _

_ “We know each other inside-out since we are kids.” He joked.  _

_ “Then, is it true you have a crush on Princess Allura?” Lance choked on his drink while she mentioned the sudden words. He had suddenly started to play with the cup of nunvil in a childish away.  _

_ “What are you talking about? It’s not like she is beautiful and charming.”  _

_ “I know that behavior, casanova.” Leila said. The Cuban boy stiffen at her tone and looked at her green eyes. She  _ **_knew._ ** _ That devil.  _

_ “If you don’t tell me, I will tell everyone how manly it is sleeping with your comforter.” She taunted.  _

Her finger in the air, she looked at Coran. 

“I do remember the computer class Coran gave me to acknowledge of the Altean system. It was difficult at first. I pulled a few all nighters to read everything I could about it. It wasn’t until we were introduced to the King’s AI. With his knowledge, my brain burnt less. It is still hard to learn about anything of the universe, but I know with the help of Pidge, I will be managing myself soon enough.” 

Coran unzoomed the camera out of Leila’s face and progressed slowly. 

“I want to let anyone who is watching this know, I want to prove to my parents I was made for this destiny. This is the path I am walking currently and if they do see this message, it was the best thing they have done: leaving me to the McClains so I can assume my own path. I have all I ever wanted, a family and friends who I can count on. I am a part of a legacy no one will be a part of if they weren’t here in my life.

Leila looked on the side where they called her out. 

“Leila!” Roe said as she had her hands on her hips. “Come on, you are training with me today and the others. Stop slacking off!” 

“Coming!” She looked at Coran and smiled at the camera. The lens closed off. 


	2. Log 016 - Connection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls are stranded on a planet for a short period of time until Pidge comes to get them. Something occurs during their stay.

Stirring from the lying position she was in, the long-haired brunette couldn’t figure her mind out. The deep jungle noises, the birds above her head and the branches ruffling against each other were an indication that they weren’t in the Yellow lion’s mouth anymore. Her eyes moved a little without being opened. She slowly put her hand on her forehead, trying to chase away the other noise ringing inside her mind. 

A soft purring emitted from nowhere, making her sit up in a hurry. “NO!” She called, with her hand reaching out in front of her. Her eyes were surprised by the sudden blur of the outside light and all the wild environment she found herself in. She patted her chest, her head and her side ponytail. 

“Alright... I’m still in one piece. No armor break, the shoulder pads are fine, where am I?” Roe mumbled to herself. “Wait...more importantly, where are the others?!” 

The purr rang once more into her subconscious. She put her hand on the side of her head, thinking she was hallucinating noises or something. Shaking her head side to side, she focused on her surroundings. Her eyes fell on a strange-looking animal. It looked like a lion mixed with the vibe of a wolf. The thick white main, the large paws and the dog-like tail described it all - she was turning crazy from the bump she got onto her head previously. The said animal trailed off her sight while taking another direction. She got up making sure her body was stable. 

Two steps only from her current spot, Roe put her hand on her headset were some white noise was coming off her Altean communication device. It sounded like a glitched ringing, probably due to the lack of signal in the area. She thought to herself, gloved finger to her pinkish lips, maybe she was alone on the planet, or maybe the only human alive. Panic rose within her face while she walked one spot to another, trying to calm down. 

“What would Shiro do in this kind of situation? He would probably try to calm down first. Yeah, that’s a great idea. After that, finding a way out. But how!?” She put her hands on her cheeks in pure panic mode.

Taking a look around, she noticed her helmet with the broken glass at the front, she gulped. Dusting the remaining pieces off, she put it on, trying to find a way of communication. The main thing had to be done, finding the others as soon as possible. Pushing the intercom button, it didn’t sound like the way she wanted it to be - pure static and no range. She groaned to herself but soon realized the spiritual direction. She took the hint, finally, setting off for the next step.

\---

Pushing away from the wild vegetation and thick branches out of her face with the help of the holographic shield, Roe managed to come out to a small clearing. The clearing seemed calm enough but to her horror of hearing creepy noises in the jungle, she didn’t stand in place too long. She quickly switched off the helmet mode to the silent one to muffle the noise. She sighed in relief, making her have a slight reminder of her parents’ teaching.

**_FLASHBACK…_ **

_ Giving a kick to the highest peak of the training pole, Roe landed on her feet. She gave a brave pose and standing in front of her “adversary”. It took only a minute she had broke two of the main training sticks and another one popped out of nowhere, hitting her in the forehead, pushing her backward, landing on her butt.  _

_ A soft giggle caught her attention while she was rubbing the sensitive spot on her forehead. Looking back, she saw a beautiful woman in her late forties, sitting in the nearby chair on the back courtyard. The refreshments and breakfast were on the table outside while she looked at her daughter with a funny look. “What’s wrong, dear?” She asked playfully, obviously hiding the command pad of the training platform. _

_ “MOM!” Roe cried comically. “Did you- No! It can’t be!” She sat up quickly as she saw the older woman with the remote in her hand.  _

_ “Pause, ma chérie!” Her father called. His obvious french accent rang from the porch’s sliding door with the tea kettle in his hand. “You trained enough, you should take a break and listen to your mama.”  _

_ “Daddddddd….” the brunette whined as she walked slowly. “I'm not hungry.” She protested while her stomach betrayed greatly. The two parents were not surprised and started to laugh instead. Taking place in the chair, she quickly opened the tray cover. The steam came out all out showing a typical french breakfast composed of croissant au Chocolat, some baguettes with melting butter and many types of cheeses ready to be devoured.  _

_ While her father was serving the tea, Roe was busy eating a lot. Her mother blew on her cup slowly. “Slow down dear.” She warned softly. Roe slowed her pace while gulping her bread piece.  _

_ “Sorry can’t do. I want to train more!” She showed off her muscles. Her parents looked at each other.  _

_ “What is the reason for the sudden rush?” He asked while he put his teacup down on the table. Roe paused as she was about to put a slice of cheese in her mouth. She thought, furrowing her eyebrows.  _

_ “For the future.”  _

_ “Quel future?” He asked again.  _

_ “Our future.” She looked up at her parents while her older brother stood in the doorway. “Anybody I will meet in the future. I want to learn more about them and protect them.”  _

_ Her eyes looked up at them. Her eyes widen slightly as she saw the warmest smile on their faces.  _

_ “Tu es courageuse, ma petite fille.” Her father spoke while taking her mother’s hand into his. “We believe in you.”  _

**_FLASHBACK END_ **

She had to find her friends the fastest way possible. Her legs started to walk in the other direction where she saw the supposed hallucination of the lion. The quicker her feet took the dirt path, the quicker her legs took her to the next destination. She summoned her shield once more to push the bushes and branches off her path. Her track stopped at a hill. Before her stood an old industrial-looking city buried under the wildlife. No doubt, her mind rested on the only conclusion of this planet being taken by Zarkon thousand of years ago.

Not thinking twice, Roe slid down the steep hill. The dirt went against her chest plate and went in all directions. She got up, dusting herself off, and took the nearest path where recent activities had been taken. Some of the facilities were still functioning but were really slow in the production of energy. She took a few minutes to check within the old food stash. Trying to push her communication button, it finally came up with a response. The screeching didn’t come exactly from the helmet itself but from the nearby road of the city full of roots and rocks. Searching for the source of the scream, it took a short second to see a blonde girl running past her. 

“Leila!” Roe smiled happily to see her. 

“RUN NOW! GREETINGS LATER!” Leila continued down the street with her two guns activated.

The brunette turned her head. Her eyes popped out of her skull. She directly took the chase after Leila. Leila pulled her into an old industrial facility where the lizard-like horses passed their hiding spot. They halted their run, sniffing the air for their presence. The two females held their breath with each other’s hands on their mouths. The creatures ran off in the opposite direction to go back on their tracks. They both sighed in relief. 

“How did you get yourself in this situation?” Roe asked taking her breath back. 

“I should ask you this as well. Did you see what they did to my back?!” She pointed out her suit being ripped off in her middle back. Roe blushed slightly. “Not only they are searching for food but also too much entertainment.” 

“Oh yeah!” She touched the device of her gauntlet to make sure they knew where they were. She had concluded since they were in an old industrial city, the buildings were probably still able to gather any pieces of information. The map appeared on both of their Altean devices. 

“ **_Planet Yezurn -… Toloom Quadrant._ ** ” The voice spoke out. 

“Oh..” 

“Quiznak.” The two girls spoke in unison. 

“It seems like we won’t be able to communicate with the Castle of Lions from where we are. Our position is so far off. Also, I don’t think they know where we are either.” Leila said as she put away her device in her pouch. 

“I remember before we were separated, Nakia cast a spell on us. It was sort of a barrier or something.” Roe said, motioning her hands around to showcase the form around her. Leila facepalmed. 

“I know what she did okay.” 

“That means we aren’t meant to be far from each other.” The brunette said with a big smile. Leila was speechless by Roe’s theory. She was right. 

Roe pressed the button on her gauntlet to see a map of the area. Leila pressed the back of the Altean device. It came in synch with the paladin’s armor memory storage. Two small dots appeared in the hologram. 

“Saying from the energy, it’s Nakia. She is only a few blocks away.” Leila said. 

“What about those things outside?” She whispered with her hand near her mouth. 

The two girls’ heads appeared out of the entrance to check out the environment. It seems clear to them. Quietly walking on the path the map displayed the Demelvian’s location, they made sure they weren’t followed. 

“Nakia!” Roe gasped when she saw the body on the ground. She slid on the ground next to her and checked her pulse. She sighed in relief; Nakia was still alive but only unconscious from her wounds. 

“Found him!” Leila announced as she dug out the sword out of the rumble. She gleamed happily, proud of her search. Kneeling next to their friend, they checked her body for any major wounds. Leila recoiled as soon as she saw the piece of metal stuck within her shoulder. Their hands-on their mouths, they couldn’t think of any solution to dislodge the piece out without making her suffer anymore. 

“What’s going-- on!? URGH! AAAHH!” Nakia gasped in pain when her hand went where the piece of metal was coming out of her shoulder. Her screams of pain were so intense Leila had to muffle her cries with her hand. The monsters were still outside, somewhere, searching for them. 

Roe was also panicking unable to think of anything to help besides trying to not cry as well. A light came out of the sword at the moment she was about to call out the male’s name. The seal broke on its own, letting the Demelvian water elf appear before their eyes. Tears of relief were to the girls’ eyes when they saw Laneila.

“No time to think or act. You keep her down and quiet.” He ordered.

“Easy for you to say!” Leila exclaimed. 

Laneila was trying to keep her down. Nakia already had been clawing his skin. His features turned into a grimace while he held her down. “GIRLS! FOCUS!” The two girls came straight up to him. Leila and Roe, on each side, pinned her roughly. Roe was ready to pull the metal out. 

The brunette gave eye contact and pulled it out. Laneila was the next in line to put the healing magic. He was able to stop the bleeding, but sadly he was too low in energy to heal her completely. 

He sank against the nearby wall. He used to his blue cloth and ripped a part of it. He patched Nakia’s shoulder with it. “I’m sorry if I can’t any longer… if my energy is down… so is Nakia’s. I will see you around…” He winked as he faded back to the sword. 

It only took a few minutes to let everyone calm down. Nakia was able to sit up, take a break and breathe in the necessary air she needed to be in motion again. 

“How are you feeling?” Leila asked her friend. 

Nakia tested her hand to see if the pain was still numb. Laneila had been able to produce enough energy so she would be walking around. She used the sword as a crutch and help herself up. 

“Yeah let’s move…” Nakia said with a smile to reassure the two teammates. Roe smiled happy, wiping her tears from her eyes. 

Roe had not seen the spirit from the moment after she met with the others. It was an odd situation when her brain was trying to process what it was. Was it friendly? Did it want to help them out? 

Her reverie was cut short when Leila’s hand took her by surprise. 

“From your map, Clara should be around the corner.” She pointed out right in front of them where the path was shown through the vegetation growing thicker. Feeling the warmth of her friend’s hand going away, her thoughts were soon obstructed again with the white spirit. Why now? 

Waiting on Nakia’s slow walk, they looked for any sign of monsters. A small little beast ran past them to signal a presence of something even more powerful. They freaked out when they saw the massive body of a wolf-looking alien being thrown over their heads.The animal quickly got up and ran off yelping in distress. Their gaze fell on the taller brunette of their squad presenting her victory pose. 

“You’re not gonna get me that easily!!” Clara declared only to see her comrades in front of her. “GIRLS!” 

“CLARA! RUN!” Leila pointed right behind her. 

“What- HOLY SQUIRREL!!!!!” Clara screamed as she quickly dove forward to avoid the attack of the two monsters the girls were desperately trying to avoid for the past two hours. Nakia felt her body being thrown over Clara’s shoulder while they were running off. 

They were able to take refuge in a cave. The two beasts had their scent in their noses and couldn’t stop trying to dig where they were hidden. 

“What do we do now?” Clara asked when she checked the girls with any problems. 

Static caught their attention. Coming from their communication device in their helmets, they were hearing disturbing voices. They were able to tune it right. It was Pidge. Pidge was right above them. 

“I can’t pick your position, the trees are too dense. It’s hard to see guys!” Pidge spoke. “You must find any way to get me to you asap!” 

“Count on us!” The squad said in unison. 

“I will do a diversion.” Nakia said trying to get up. Roe put her hand on her shoulder. 

“You shouldn’t go alone. I’m coming.” Roe frowned with concern. 

They both agreed on the plan. The nose of the alien beast was in the entrance. It was suddenly roughly kicked out. It rolled on the side, shaking off their head of the sudden dizzyness. They started to growl. 

“ We made them even angrier!” Nakia exclaimed, picking the sword out. Her eyes saw a spirit coming out of the shadows joining next to another one that Roe noticed next. 

“Let’s move!” They both said in sync. It caught Clara and Leila in confusion.

They didn’t think twice, starting to run off for their lives. Cutting through the branches, avoiding the cliffs of the building created, they made it to a clearing. Relief appeared in their sight when the green lion was roaming above their heads. The green paladin had her spotlight on them for better precision. 

The two monsters came to a stop when they were greeted by two unknown entities. The ghost-like figures approached them making the two latter step backward. The ghosts roared with all their might making the creatures cower away. 

\-----

Much to Pidge’s puzzled expression, she was sure it wasn’t the green lion’s doing to scare the two creatures away. The lion landed to let them board the jaw and safely get back in the mechanical feline. The girls gave the thumbs up to leave.

Coran was the first to push the paladins away in the corridor. He arrived in the green hangar running to the squad. The girls were glad to see him. Coran didn’t take a second to hug them tightly in his arms. His eyes freshly dried of the tears he shed for hours. 

“You are all okay.” Coran spoke. “Please, don’t do this stunt ever again.” 

Fighting for air, the girls agreed to his condition, returning the hug he deserved in return. The paladins sighed in relief. Lance pulled Leila in his arms relieved of seeing her okay. He mostly said the same thing as Coran would. Nakia was the first to collapse on the ground. The energy was worn out. Laneila had done his best to keep her awake for the next hours. 

The paladins’s task were dispatched by Shiro. Lance took the liberty to help Nakia out. Leila was just fine and not wounded. Nakia tried to deny his help but the Cuban couldn’t take no as an answer. 

“Laneila would have done the same if he were me. Let me help you for once.” Lance said with a smile she didn’t mean to see. Her cheeks grew slightly red. She nodded. 

Pidge cleaned their armors, fixed their helmets. Hunk distributed some food and drinks. Keith made sure Leila was properly sitting and spoke with her for a few minutes. Lance gave some warning glance to the mullet. He waved it off. 

“Lance…my back..” Nakia commented to catch his attention again. He apologized. Keith waved to Leila while she mirrored his gesture. She hugged the blanket on her shoulders. 

“Clara, Leila, Nakia, Roe. Tonight you will be resting in the healing pods.” The Altean princess indicated. “It will help with your body to heal faster and quickly rest.” She smiled with her hands on her chest. 

“Thank you princess.” They smiled to her. 

\-----

A few hours later, the healing pod glass opened for Nakia. She stumbled slightly and looked around. One of the pods was empty. Clara was already awake. 

She let her gut feelings take her wherever the brunette might be. There she was standing alone on the star bridge. In silence, she sat next to her, her head turning but looking forward once more. 

“Tell me Nakia.” 

“Hm?” 

“What is it like to be gifted with magic and you can fight freely? I envy you a bit.” Clara declared. 

“Why would you say that? You are way stronger than I am, literally speaking.” Nakia joked. 

“Yeah… We could say I wished we never ended up in this war.” 

“Me neither.” 

“What made you take this decision so easily? You are fighting for something, right?” Clara asked her.

“I could say… I get that fighting spirit from my father.” She looked at her hands not looking at the brunette next to her. “He doesn’t stop until he gets what he needs done.” 

“Your dad huh?” A small flash came from her head with the face of her father. The last time she saw him they had an argument about a family matter.

“Right now… I’m still asking why am I even here. I wonder why Princess Hjordis chose me over someone else to be on the other side of the reality I come from.” 

“We all have our path, don’t we?” Clara pointed out with a question. Soon her lips were painted with an obvious smug-looking smile. “By path, do you know where it’s heading with Lance by the way?” She nudged the teen’s shoulder. 

“I don’t know what you are talking about!” Nakia denied with her arms crossed.

“Oh come on! Spill it out! YOU LOVE HIM!” She poked her sides. Nakia tried to fight back the laugh erupting out of her throat. The burst of laughter finally been heard by two other members. 

“Really girls? Without us!?” Roe pouted in the threshold. Clara encouraged them to come and get the Demelvian into her laughter. Tears were flowing on the auburn-haired girl already. 

A few minutes later, they came to stop while breathing all for air. The tickle war had been a good motive to strengthen their bond more than anything they could have wished for. They sat to each other’s backs. They took a moment of silence before voicing their thoughts out loud.

“I wish to find my friend soon.” Clara declared.

“I wish to learn more from tech with Pidge.” Leila also spoke her heart out.

“I want to awaken my true potential as I am.” Nakia touched her chest with her hand closing her eyes. 

“I want to find dogs in space.” Roe said with a smile on her face.

She received the same usual looks from her friends. They burst into giggles. They sighed, intertwining their fingers in each other’s hands. 

\-----

On the next morning, while doing his early day’s duties, Coran came across them sleeping on the floor. All piled up on each other’s shoulders. He sighed remembering a brief memory of his daughter. 

“Naoni, dear.” Coran spoke getting a blanket from the storage in the room. “I believe I see you everywhere I land my eyes on.” 

His eyes soften as he checks his work after draping the squad with the blanket. 

“I believe you are somewhere happy.” 

  
  


_ Log 017 - Difference _


	3. Log 017 - Difference

“Alright, maggots!” A booming voice rang in the room that looks like a gymnasium from a school. “Today is the second year examination. I need your attention to be focused only on the tasks at hand and nothing else.” 

Commander Iverson checked the class standing in line in front of him. Female and male students were looking at each other until his voice raised once more to turn their attention to him.

“Be sure that you have studied well. If anything is on your mind on the upcoming drills, refer yourself to the teacher of your field of study.” 

A firm ‘yes sir!’ was yelled from the cadets. Their hands up near their foreheads. The commander recognized their attitude. 

“You are dismissed.” He ordered. 

The tension in the room dropped instantly. Some students dropped on the ground, sighing with relief. Teachers were walking around to gather their class groups. One particular teacher was walking around the gymnasium towards a few students. 

“I will take the attendance once we are in the classroom.” She said, “for now, please, move there.” She clarified afterward.

The group slowly gathered together. The room’s doors opened to let them in and they sat in their respective places. The teacher took place at the front. 

“After what Commander Iverson said, I will give a quick summary. Someone was not clearly paying attention.” The woman spoke with a certain tone pointed out for a student sitting at the back. “Isn’t that right, Cadet McClain?” 

The Cuban received a shove at the back from his friend. He looked at the blonde sitting behind him. Leila. 

“I’m sorry, commander.” Lance apologized. 

“It’s alright Mcclain, you can sit.” She dismissed him. “Are you still under shock after your promotion?” She kindly asked. The Cuban brightened up and smiled awkwardly towards the class. The group had started to talk about the expulsion of a student in the fighter pilot class. 

“Enough.” The woman’s voice rose. “I will be taking the attendance now.” 

“Cadet Flory” She called out, the student responded back by raising their hand. She continued on, one cadet after another. “Lastly, cadet Gardner.” 

“Present, commander Reid.” The blonde from before raised her hand up. 

“Good. Today is revision for your next examination. I would like you to team up with the students in your group for next week.” 

“Commander Reid!” A military chief called out, making her leave her front spot. She approached the door meeting a brunette with a pair of glasses and left the room briefly.

“Adam. What would be the honor?” The teacher asked. 

“Com- I mean Caireen. There is a small favor I would like you to do for me.” He said, his eyes down to the ground. 

“There’s an open spot in the previous fleet crew that could be taken by someone of your class. Knowing cadet Mcclain was transferred to the fighter class, there’s a chance at least somebody of your group can take a place there.” 

“I see.” Her finger softly brushed her lips, thinking. “We can test a few cadets I may have in mind?” 

“I couldn’t see why not.” Adam replied back. 

“Come on in.” Caireen said. 

The chatter had started right after she had left the class. Passing the doorway along with Adam, the silence was settled. 

“The commander here has a proposition for a few of you.” Caireen explained, leaving the stool for Adam to explain the next context. 

The pixie cut brunette observed her fellow colleague going on about the situation. A few females and males were selected to take the test being scheduled the next day. This caused the classroom to chatter on the spot. 

“This is unexpected I know. We need to fulfill the spot as soon as possible.” Adam said with a serious tone. “As much it is difficult for some you may know, we have a task here. The Garrison is here to teach you how to defend the world here. There is no time to stay here and do nothing. I will name the students approved for the examination.” 

Adam didn’t make a fuss about the chatter. He looked at the list in his hand from the beginning and checked the classroom.

“Flory, Vander, Dodger, Gardner, Spencer and Schonhorn.” 

The six students rose from their seats after being called by their last name. It was a rule in the military department to be treated equally - female or male. 

_The next day- Galaxy Garrison - Examination room._

Iverson, Caireen and Adam stood in front of the group of six cadets in their gear. There were other cadets, known for their good skills, attending the examination to help others.

“The examination will be separated into three groups. Two of you will be working with the same crew helping out here.” Iverson spoke with a rough tone. “Remember, collaboration is necessary in this exercise. We don’t want you to have the same problem as the one a year ago. Am I clear?” 

The students agreed on his terms. The groups had been decided the previous evening. It took at least two hours to let the examination take place, each group taking thirty minutes to complete their task. 

Later in the afternoon, Caireen was putting the result sheet on the communication board. Lance passed nearby with Pidge and Hunk in tow. The crowd was not too big but they were pushing each other to see who from Caireen’s class had taken the spot for the engineering technician.

“So who is it?” A female cadet spoke up. 

“They are checking it out.” Another one replied. 

“No way--!” One gasped. 

“What? Out of all six, they picked _her_?” 

Lance looked up at the list soon as the crowd started to disperse. Pidge approached, putting her glasses back up. Hunk looked over Lance’s shoulder with a taco in hand. 

“Who is it?” Hunk said between bites. 

“They said it was a ‘she’” Pidge pointed out. 

“I’m sure it's Jenny...who took the..” Lance leaned into the communication board and saw the result. His eyes were wide. “...spot.” 

“Hey, Leila managed to get the spot! Neat!” Hunk said with a wide smile. “Does she even know?” 

“I don’t think she does.” Lance scratched the back of his head. He just nearly remembered the fight he had with her the previous evening. He had been proclaiming himself lucky to have gotten the place as a fighter pilot. He had bad-mouthed something about someone from their class. Leila threw her glass of water in his face. 

The situation escalated afterward. They needed two commanders in the cafeteria to stop them from yelling at each other. 

_“Your ego has gotten so big Lance! You don’t see what’s going on since your head is in the clouds. Quit playing around!”_

The words rang into his skull the whole night. He had to come up with a earnest apology this time. He clearly remembered when they were kids, they never fought over serious matters, but this time something had seriously triggered his friend. 

He abandoned the idea of telling her the good news. Walking by the commanders’ quarters, Lance and Hunk slowed when Pidge pointed out seeing Leila in Caireen’s office. Her back hunched over, her hands joined. Caireen saw the Garrison trio through her window. She shook her head motioning them to go away for now. 

Lance’s expression saddened suddenly. Hunk pat his back. Caireen returned to her internal crisis. She put down a teacup in front of her student. 

“This was the worst…” Leila complained. “Lance can joke around as much as he wants. It was too much. He had crossed the line!” She expressed. 

“I’m listening, dear. Continue.” Caireen said, sitting at her desk. “I know you need to spill the beans as everyone would say.” 

A choked giggled came out of the girl’s mouth. She wiped her eyes repeatedly. 

“You cared for Keith, didn’t you?” Caireen asked, taking a sip of her tea.

“Yes, I did. I know he was rough around the edges. He had his walls up because of the incident on Kerberos… I never thought he would go further to attack Commander Iverson… and--” She stopped, slowly processing it. 

“Getting expelled. I know it was an injustice. He attacked an officer. They had no other choice.” Caireen said calmly. 

“Lance got promoted to his seat… Why does he need to show it off? It’s only a class, nothing more.” She paused upon realization. It had been the first time she had spoken for herself and not in the name of somebody else. She showed some defense towards Keith because she cared. 

Caireen pointed her finger up stopping her from continuing further. 

“You are caring for Keith as much as Shiro did, Leila.” The brunette smiled softly at her protégé. “You are protecting them because you can show empathy for them. Keith may not be here, yet, I’m sure he can feel what you are expressing in his stead.” 

Leila took a sip of the cup. She made a small grimace from the heat of the warm beverage. The blonde put down the mug down on the table. 

“I’ve seen many cases of students who would mock others because of their own insecurities. Have you ever thought of how Lance expresses himself toward others?” Caireen declared with a question.

Caireen smiled. She put her hand on the student’s shoulder and gave a slight squeeze. 

“From now on, I’m going to help you. Did you know you have obtained the place of the engineering technician?” 

Leila was speechless when the supervisor announced the good news. She got up from her chair looking at the commander woman. 

“I did it?” Leila asked. The lady nodded with an eye smile. “I DID IT! OH MY GOD!!” 

“Remember this Leila.” Caireen stopped her from her jumping. “There’s a lot more that happened back when you should remember.” 

Leila came up to a realization Caireen was right. Lance did intervene many times to defend her from any bullies. He was protective of her since he was her family, acting like the big brother figure she needed. One day, she would need to let go.

The blonde left the commander’s office waving to her through the window. Making her way towards the dorms, she crossed paths with the girl called Jenny. They were mocking Lance for his flirty attitude towards them. 

“I would rather date a frog than the idiotic flirt he pretends to be. He is such a waste.” she commented. 

“Calling himself the Tailor? Is he a joke or what?” One of Jenny’s friends laughed at that.

The girls crossed the blonde making her way to her room. 

“Hey Leila. Congrats for getting the spot.” Jenny said with a fake smile. “ **_Cheater._ **”

Leila stopped her tracks once she heard the last word. Her calm nature changed drastically to boiling anger. It subsided suddenly when she remembered what she had just discussed with Caireen a moment ago. She turned around smiling. 

“Thank you Jenny. You can take your chance next year.” Leila snarkily commented. The girl stopped laughing, taken aback by Leila’s words. The blonde cadet turned once more with a satisfied smile on her face. The doors of her room opened, and she entered. 

Putting herself into a comfortable outfit, she pulled out her phone. She slowly raised the app gallery. Her index finger swiping through all the photos she had taken from home. The usual family gathering of the Mcclains. Leila and Lance’s selfies right after their arrival at the Garrison. Lance sleeping with his comforter. Her heart warmed up, hugging the phone to her chest. Determination rose through the body. 

Tomorrow was a new day. 

During the coming evening, she had received a simulation appointment from Commander Iverson. She would be part taking the same examination as Lance, but with another group a few weeks later.

Pulling her suitcase out from under the bunk bed, she searched for a certain item. She smiled at the sight of the bandana. She felt determined to face the new chapter of her life starting now. She approached the mirror, tied her hair up and observed herself. 

The day announced by Commander Iverson arrived. He had been monitoring the groups, one after another for the whole day. Lance, Hunk and Pidge had failed their exams. 

“GARDNER, CARDOZO, VESSOT. YOU ARE NEXT.” Iverson called. Leila crossed path with Lance. He stopped the girl and squeezed her shoulder. 

“Good luck, Leila.” Lance genuinely smiled at her. 

“Thanks Lance.” She sat in the simulator for a period of minutes. 

The simulation went as planned. The planned flight had simulated an error code that needed to be fixed. Leila had put her hard work at hand. Cramming with Pidge gave her a better point of view of the system. Pidge was a genius, she could tell it. Able to communicate with the stranded team on the planet, they finished their mission with flying colors. 

“Roll out, donkeys!” Iverson popped his head into the cockpit. 

“I am impressed by your work lads, you did what was right. Gardner, your improvement with the error code was amazingly saved. You were thoughtful of your doing, cadet.” 

Commander Iverson continued with his praise towards the team Leila was a part of. A few mistakes here and there. They received the passing note. Leaving for the changing rooms, a guy called her. 

“Not bad for somebody like you, Gardner. You are just too easy.” 

“Maybe I am. At least I studied my butt off with the right help.” Leila thumbed up Pidge who returned it as well. “I have my resources.” 

The guy was about to say something else but he got pushed off a little by Hunk. 

“Sorry man. I need to go.” He apologized. 

The same night, Pidge had invited her on the rooftop of the Galaxy Garrison to speak about what they have been up to. Before even revealing anything to the blonde girl, Pidge had been surprised by Lance’s presence. 

A rescue later, a blue lion in the sky and now in space, Leila couldn’t believe her eyes. It took only a few hours to happen. She met Keith again and to her luck, he briefly recognized her. 

Meeting the Alteans from their awakening was the start of their adventure. Leila had thought they were something really important. Allura tried to give any easy task to Leila to fit in. Her thoughts made her wander within the old castle of ten thousand years of slumber.

\------

Sitting up, Leila wiped her eyes from the sleepy tears. She yawned. It had been really a dream after all. She had been thinking a lot about home lately. As much as Lance wanted to be on Earth, they were both equal. They missed their families. 

“Ou-OUCH!” A smack was heard from the group sitting up slowly. Nakia had been smacked by Roe in the face during her sleep. The yelp drew the two brunettes out of their slumber. 

“Slept well?” Leila asked the girls. 

“I could’ve been better if somebody didn’t smack me in the face.” Nakia said yawning. 

“I’m sorry!” Roe apologized, undoing the knots in her long side ponytail. 

“My back is a total wreck…” Clara complained.

“I will take that as a yes, then.” Leila giggled. 

Popping their bones and stretching, the girls took their time to get to the bridge. Mid-way to the room, the alarms started to ring in the whole ship. The Squad arrived quickly only to see a warning from their main screen coming from Zarkon. They were after them. 

Coran was typing away on the keyboard to see any damages done from the last fight they had gotten with the Headquarters. The barrier was heavily damaged and the sculterites were cracked. They didn’t have enough energy to make another wormhole jump just yet.

“We have to get ready!” Allura warned. “Prepare yourself to defend the castle at your best.”

“YES, PRINCESS!” Everyone in the room said at the same time. 


	4. Log 018 - Black Veil

Log 018 - Black Veil

“Wieder.” Zarkon’s voice caught the vampire’s attention at the screen displayed. Emperor Zarkon, the 10,000-year-old tyrant, looked at the red-headed male with a fierce look. He wasn’t pleased with the last attack at all. 

“Yes, Lord Zarkon?” Wieder questioned the alien. 

“I want you to head after the Castle of Lions. We are currently after them but they seem to be puzzled about our whereabouts and why we are after them. Take this as an opportunity to get them for yourself and your crew.” Zarkon spoke with a darker tone. “You have the permission to use your power to do whatever so they can be more distraught. Am I clear?” 

Wieder put his fist against his chest plate, slightly bending over to show respect. “I won’t discourage you, my Lord.” 

“Excellent. Make sure to report everything to Haggar.” The Emperor said as he closed the screen. Wieder looked at the last display feed of the Castle of Lions. The Emperor’s video feed showed the ship escaping them a moment ago. 

“My father is still as arrogant as ever, is he not?” Another voice spoke from the shadows behind the vampire’s command desk. 

“I wouldn’t be so bold if I was you, Lotor. He still seeks you and wants you dead.” The male responded while typing on the holographic keyboard. “Even aboard my ship, you are a dead man.” 

Lotor chuckled at the trait of the blood sucker. He glanced at the screen of the latter, puzzled by what he was doing. 

“Demelvia, I presume.” Lotor commented, walking next to Wieder. He looked intriguingly at the text. 

“Yes. A lost project that might come in handy for this next encounter with the Paladins of Voltron.” He pressed the button to complete the loading screen.

“I can tell my father still believes you.” Lotor asked. 

“I am a mage. Knowledge is absolute.” He smirked. 

“If it is absolute, you don’t mind if I borrowed a bit of yours?” The fugitive prince asked the scientist. Zethrid placed a full piece of flesh in Lotor’s hand. 

“Where did you get that?” Wieder looked at the alien with an annoyed look. 

“We have our ropes to get information. Drokot was it? It was taken down by the small group helping the paladins aboard the Castle of Lions. The Blue Paladin sniped the big lad.” 

Lotor’s eyes met the gaze of Wieder. Their expression narrowed. 

“You gave me the opportunity to have what I sought for many deca phebs, Wieder. In return, you don’t mind if I get a little piece of knowledge from your own experiments, don’t you? It’s fair between two outsiders.” 

The smile Lotor displayed made the vampire snarl. 

“I knew we could come across a good settlement. Don’t worry. It is purely for the inside entertainment. Nothing will be revealed.” 

“Lotor.” The fugitive alien stopped in his tracks at the door. He turned around to catch something being thrown at him with a good force. “Another gift. Use it well.” Wieder commented. “You might need it.” He said turning around with a grin on his face. 

The silverette looked at the vial in his hand. 

Axca, Zethrid and Ezor followed their commander close behind. Ezor was humming happily while they passed the few laboratories open to see the corpse of Drokot being dismembered for further inspection. 

“I don’t trust this guy. Can I just get rid of him?” Zethrid looked back at the command center door. 

“Do not approach him under any circumstances. He may look frail, but on’t judge a book by its cover.” Lotor said, eyeing her on the side. 

“He is that strong?” Axca asked while calmly looking at the door opening in front of them. 

“A brutal strength of his caliber is enough to take Sendak down during a fight.” Lotor said with a darker tone.

The female generals were about to say something but Lotor shook his head. They headed to the boarding corridor. Wieder looked at the Galra ship leaving the cruiser and flying off through a quick space-time field. 

One grunt of the headquarters of Zarkon had sent the last coordinates the castle’s whereabouts. He quickly typed on the keyboard to camouflage his ship as the ship of Zarkon. Passing through a wormhole, Wieder stopped just above the castle of lions. His plan had succeeded to be known as the wrong ship. Able to create any more fear and panic, he pressed the button he had programmed while discussing with Lotor earlier. 

A small capsule was sent towards the castle. Shattering open in space, it revealed an invisible black curtain draping over the Altean ship, allowing the nightmare to begin. So enough to let the ghost creature wander the darkest thoughts of the crew members. 

\----------

Nakia sat up, gasping for air. There was an usual darkness within the castle. Getting up, she saw everyone looking at each other, puzzled. The silence was soon broken when Pidge started to argue with Lance. Clara bumped in to push Pidge off the Cuban. Allura barged in by pushing the two apart. 

“That’s enough!” Allura said with a dangerous tone. 

“Can you just shut it, yourself?!” Leila barked back. 

Shiro stepped in to sit Allura down on the stairs. Hunk tackled the Black Paladin to the side. He was taken aback and his eyes grew darker. Keith was having his way with Roe by rubbing her head to tangle her hair. Coran was pouting in his corner like a child. 

Nakia observed them with her eyes. Shifting from a girl to a guy, from another after another. Negativity was emerging from them. It was contagious. She didn’t seem affected. 

“Why--” 

“I’ve done it before it has gotten to you.” Laneila’s voice rang in her head. “I felt something coming from outside the castle.” 

“ _ Outside _ ?” Nakia questioned. Laneila hummed. They were both standing in the middle of the paladins, the squad, the princess and the coordinator arguing with each other. 

She approached Keith. She pulled him off Roe and checked on her. The Red paladin went after another member of the crew. She tried with Clara, Shiro and Leila. They were blank at any moves or words she was trying to say. They were acting as if she was invisible to them.

Nakia stepped back to think. It was odd. It was too real to be true. Something was up. A moment ago they were panicking over the ship of Zarkon following them from their previous coordinated movements. 

**_ZARKON._ **

That was it. Something must have infiltrated the castle from the outside, as mentioned by Laneila previously, making everyone going nuts at each other’s presence in the same room. The dark essence coming out of them was familiar to her. The composite, the feeling, the power level - Demelvian magic. 

She put herself against the wall. Her friends were arguing even louder. What could be causing this problem? She thought to herself. If it was Demelvian magic, only two people close to her, unlike the priestesses would have been in contact with this power. It was either her mother or ...Wieder. 

“Wieder…” Nakia snapped out of her trance. The magic suddenly made sense now. Dark energy making everyone turn to each other and bring negativity to the fullest. It was a creature her mother had fought a long time ago. 

Passing by the paladins quickly, she stopped at the workstation Coran would usually be in. She checked on the old man, acting like a baby along with Hunk. They were making a fuss about the best plates. She sweatdropped. She looked at the keyboard. Something she wished Coran would have taught her more about. 

She pressed a button that spread the screen open. She put her finger another after another and accidentally activated the scanner. The castle wasn’t equipped for the problem at hand. 

Nakia wasn’t equipped with the right sword either. Laneila wasn’t built for the task. Even though he was strong enough from her own magic ability, he wasn’t fit for the job. 

“I will give it a try.” Nakia said. 

“Are you sure? You don’t have any--” Laneila started.

“I know. We need to get back on the move. If not, Zarkon will be after us. This is the case.” 

Laneila couldn’t say anymore. She was determined. Nakia turned to Coran and Allura first. They were the biggest asset of the castleship since they were its owners. Nakia had been prepared for a long time to put the priestess in good use. Coran and Allura’s mindsets were based on their past loss about their kind, stopping Zarkon from his tyranny and avenging their home from being destroyed. 

Allura was the fastest to recuperate from the negativity thanks to the Altean spiritual logic. The princess thanked Nakia for her help. The mage was helping up Coran on his feet. 

“What happened?” 

“Long story short, something from the outside is infecting our minds. I have my doubt to be Zarkon on this one. It might be somebody else.” Nakia said. Coran was able to stand up properly. 

“What are you having in mind now?” Allura questioned. 

“I will take care of the others to wake up quickly. We need to do at least one wormhole jump to get out of here.” 

“The lenses are cracked. If we do this it might not be enough.” Coran said when he looked at the condition of the energy chamber. 

“Nakia. Please wake up everyone.” Allura complied.

“I will do my best.” Nakia nodded. 

\-----

Allura had sent Nakia in the training deck to have a larger place to stand. The two teams were scattered around the place, questioning why they were here. The screen opened in the higher wall. 

“Make it quick please.” Allura said. Nakia nodded in return. 

Unsheathing Laneila’s sword, she dug the blade into the ground. A magic circle appeared beneath her. She checked the light rising into pillars. She winced at the magic strength the Black Veil had unleashed upon her friends. She finally found herself in many places at the same time. 

Lance was struggling with his inner thoughts. The last time he had argued with Leila was back at the Garrison. Leila was standing on the side where many people were surrounding her belittling her for her mistakes. Two adults especially having their hands lifted. Nakia pushed Lance in the way to provide his ‘sister’ the love she needed. The Blue Lion’s spirit roared to awaken their senses. They were the seconds to vanish. 

Keith was a little tougher to wake up because of his walls. Standing in the hallway with the other Galra soldiers. He was panicking until Nakia showed up. He was shaken up when she gave him a punch in the shoulder pad. He woke up in the present. She sent him away. The Red Lion roared to the skies. Keith vanished. 

Pidge was still seeking the knowledge of her family’s coordinates. The mage pushed her into the right direction where the Green Lion had decided to open her jaw to secure the Green paladin inside. Pidge vanished. 

Hunk was struggling with a funny situation with food. The food was attacking the poor lad. The Yellow paladin had stopped his tracks as soon as he saw Nakia in the way. The girl sliced the monstrous sandwich in two. 

“Go! We need you out there” Nakia said. A roar caught the paladin by surprise to see the big mechanical cat behind his pilot. Hunk vanished. 

The environment changed to the Galra arena. Nakia had never been there. She knew instantly where she was, it was for Shiro and Clara’s past. 

The crowd was silent. 

“Clara? Shiro?” Nakia called. Her voice echoed through the empty arena. Passing by a pillar, she saw Clara sitting on the ground. Her head in her hands. Standing in front of her was Shiro. A different Shiro with a gun with a blunt object attached to it. 

Nakia tackled Clara on the side. The woman under her body, she looked at Clara with a concerned look on her face. “Are you okay?” Clara had a shocked expression on her face and a blush on her cheeks.

“C-could be worse?” Clara squeaked. 

“Good, you are awake. You go back to reality. This isn’t Shiro, this is a nightmare for both of you right now.” 

“What will you be doing?” Clara sat up. “Waking up Shiro would be a tough deal. He isn’t here!” 

“Easy deal. If it’s his nightmare, that means the witch has a link through him to make it worse.” 

“Maybe… but be careful.” 

“Girlsss” Dark Shiro mused when he was walking around the arena. “Don’t be shy~ I don’t bite, you know.” 

Clara shivered at the sexy dark voice he was talking with. “Just wake up okay! If you do something wrong, I will wake you up.” Clara looked at Nakia with a knowing look. 

She nodded in return. She received a rough pat on the back. The scenery changed again into a Galra ship. It was a hangar with the other Galra fleet. Searching around was hard. Nakia was about to turn around when she felt a hand around her neck. 

  
  


“It’s bad searching in someone’s head, girl.” Shiro spoke with a dark tone. His eyes were flashing bright yellow. They looked so menacing. 

Nakia had difficulty pressing more sense into the fake one. The shadow of this dark self was Shiro inner thoughts to the fullest. His experiment with the Galra and the witch were getting his mind deeper. The electricity through the robotic arm was sparkling ready to put an end to her. 

“If you are really Shiro, think about yourself. Think about the others! Zarkon is the enemy… not us!” She gasped when his hand slacked. She dropped on her butt. Not thinking twice, she sprinted towards the Black paladin, tackling him. She fazed through him taking the real Shiro out of the dark envelope. They rolled on their sides. Grunting, they looked at each other. 

“Nakia, how did you-” Shiro panted. 

“No time to stay here. I have Roe to get.” Nakia replied with a hand on her heart. “I am not leaving her here.” 

“Be careful.” The dark veil was getting stronger. Shiro vanished suddenly. 

Nakia got up to look at the scenery changing once more. The creature was looking at the mage. “You let her go.” It snarled. “You have done enough harm in the past. Today, you stop again!” 

“It hurts…” Roe’s child voice could be heard. 

A pulsation came from the child. Another pulsation passed through Nakia’s heart as well. The dark entity double-take the power and got off Roe’s form now back as an adult. It looked at the tired form of the Demelvian in front of her. Nakia shielded herself. Two large weighted objects jumped between the distance. On each side of the girls, two spiritual lions roared together. A column of light coming out of them, a flash blinding the two humans. 

The pillar of light came out of the castle of lions. It surprised Wieder at a distance. 

Nakia and Roe rose from their laying position in the training deck. Leila and Clara were with them. Hunk was assisting Roe to get up. 

“Is it all?!” Allura asked. 

Nakia coughed two times. “NOW!” 

The castleship’s lenses emitted enough energy to open the wormhole they needed. They disappeared from Wieder’s radar. The vampire’s anger rose suddenly. He startled his Galra grunts working at the front by fisting the keyboard. A glitch occurred. 

“Goddammit, all!” He swore. The Black Veil had been defeated and nothing was left. Small radiation caught the eye on the video feed of the Altean ship. Nakia was coughing a few times. The male’s eyes grew wider as he noticed the darkness surrounding the girl’s body. 

“Follow them.” Wieder ordered. 

“Sir, you have the emperor on the line.” A Galra soldier spoke.

“Wieder.” Zarkon spoke through the screen. “It seems your work is done for now. Haggar will be sending a beast after them. You have played your part.” 

The screen closed. 

Popping out the other side of the wormhole, the castlehip got itself hidden away from any contact. Coran gave a quick rundown on the system. No virus. Everyone seemed okay.

“How did this happen?” Shiro questioned the crew. 

Nakia coughed a few more times. Everyone slumped into a chair to rest. It took only a minute to put everyone into alert once the alarm started once again. 

Who was it? 

“Intruders in the lower grounds!” Allura spoke with a firm tone. The camera showed two individuals running in the corridors. The paladins were ready to go after them. The Squad remained back with Allura to provide extra protection.

**_Log 019 : Four thoughts._ **


	5. Log 019- Four thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ulaz and Isias were able to help team Voltron to pass by the robeast. Right now, the girls have some thoughts on their mind individually.

Allura's voice was the last thing the girls had heard. A turn of the event passed so quickly after they met two galra individuals that came aboard the ship introducing themselves as two members of the hidden operative base - Blade of Marmora. It resulted after the loss of one of them, Ulaz, the tension rose even more aboard. No one wanted to speak to each other. Not only was everyone drained of their energy, but also the chase didn't help either. They needed to know more about the whereabouts of the Blades but also learn to relax.   
  
The biggest problem was how they would be figuring out how Zarkon was tracking them down so easily.  
  
Wandering in the corridor in the direction of Keith's room, Leila gave three soft knocks on his door. The Red paladin opened his door, a bit surprised but yet, unphased by her presence just now. "Do you need anything?" He asked with the door barely open. Leila looked at him with a soft look. He was a bit taken aback. "Can I talk with you? Do you want some company?" The blonde asked simply.   
  
"Maybe...another time," Keith said. "Sorry… I'm not in the mood." He closed the door. Leila was about to knock again, but she stopped her hand at the surface. She sighed. The Earthling put her forehead against it, closing her eyes. She pushed herself off and walked down the corridor, giving a last look behind. She thought one moment before heading to the Green lion's hangar, where she would be finding Pidge and Hunk.   
  
In the room, Roe was sitting on her bed. She had her nose into some books; some were on the ground and others on her bed. Her room was already a mess with the presence of all this. She scratched the back of her head while turning a page. The book she was reading was about the various alien species around the galaxy. It had been the third book so far she hadn't found any interest in it. Closing the current one to put it aside with the others, she used the visual translator to have the title written into the Earth language.   
  
Her eyes widen at the title. She quickly skipped the introduction of the book to go directly to the main subject she had been searching for since the beginning she had been aboard. Dogs. In. Space. Finally, her dream came true when she had her face on the right page.   
  
"I quiznaking knew it!" She spits the little wood piece from her teeth. "What if I managed to let know of their existence to Shiro, I'm pretty sure it could be good animal support for everyone. No way! Moral support!" She closed the book with a rich sound of the pages taping against each other. "Better try it or never! Shiro will accept!"   
  
She put down the volume on the mattress. Her two automatically opened, her head slowly popped out. She slowly made her way to the bridge. She acted cleverly as a spy would be, her calculating was about right. She made her way to Coran's station. She pushed three specific buttons to open the browser of the galaxy. She typed quickly in the altean language the hieroglyphs she had read in the last book.   
  
"Neat." She pressed the enter button. The feed showed many types of yuppers she had been reading about in the books. Her eyes were sparkling in interest. The look of a baby yupper was enough to give a heart stroke. "Daw, I want one now."   
  
"What do you want?" A voice startled her, making fist the keyboard to close the feed from the screen.   
  
"Oh, ya know the usual thing."   
  
"What usual thing?" The owner of the voice was Shiro. He approached her with a suspicious look on his face. "What are you doing touching Coran's station at this hour? I thought you were going to read about the altean books."   
  
"I did and didn't finish." She cleared her throat. "I needed to stretch out those legs of mine."   
  
"Then, this browser about galran dogs is one this to keep you outside your room?" Shiro asked.   
  
The small screen was open in her back. Roe swallowed a lump in her throat. She just got caught.  
  
Clara stayed up in the observation room. Like Roe, she had decided to have a look at some books Allura helped choose after their departure from the cluster field. Nakia's galra relative was a big help to learn more about humans coming from their reality and living on Earth.   
  
"I should've known by now." She turned a page from the paladin's code. Most volumes she had read, she had decided to stay with the paladin's code given by Coran at the beginning of their adventure. Reminiscing their bounding moment in the training deck and their power link through a simple mindset - the knowledge had been the creation of King Alfor's ideals.  
  
Ulaz had been working with the Blade of Marmora for a long time. His loss made many persons of the crew sad. The death didn't phase Allura. "The galra had men from the inside to help the galra empire fall… That's interesting." She spoke to herself. Her finger to her lip, while she read the paladin's code once more. One passage got her alerted from what Isias and the AI had revealed again.   
  
"If the code written to used by specific fighters are we the ones destined to use it aside of the paladin of Voltron themselves?" Clara questioned herself. The thirst of knowledge grew in her brain. If using the code was meant to help the others in need and find the ones who were lost. Thought about the previous crew she went with on her first mission was brought back.   
  
"Everyone…" She muttered. Closing the small book with a rushed move, she headed to the door. "I'm sure Pidge must have anything about her brother. Ulaz did give her some information about the prisoners taken in before he saved Shiro the following year."   
She made it clear. She needed the tech-savvy help to know more about the prisoners. It was worth the try. Leila was sitting with Lance, Pidge and Hunk in the Green lion's hangar. Hunk had brought some snacks to everyone to enjoy and kill the sad mood. "You guy wanna try this new recipe I've been working? It's super good." Lance took a spoonful and decided to catapult it towards Leila. The blonde had been in a long deep lost thought.   
  
With pure reflexes, she dodged the food from being spattered in her face. She sighed uninterested. "Whoa there. That's not you at all to avoid the food like that." Lance commented.   
  
Another sigh left her lips. Lance knew her character way more than usual. He visioned the same scene with a different interpretation where she would not avoid the food and getting splattered with it, make a scene and start a food fight on the spot. Right now, it wasn't the case. His scenery broke when Pidge's device rang.   
  
"Clara, what is it?" Pidge asked as she put the small mic to her ear. Her eyes go from tired to wide into an instant. "Wait, yeah, I'm coming right away. In the archives? Good, meet you there." She pushed the chair off.   
  
"Sorry, guys, but duty is calling." Pidge said.   
  
Leila eyed the green paladin leave.   
  
"Here, try these cookies from the previous recipe. It was before Lance tried to get you in the face."   
  
"He did that?" Leila questioned. Hunk retracted his hand instantly.   
  
"Nevermind that." Hunk said with a nervous laugh. Leila took a cookie, glanced through it, and try to give a bite. A glass-shattering noise made her grimace.   
  
"Hunk, my man, I know you love cooking, but those cookies are daring hard to bite through." Leila motioned the little piece between her fingers. Hunk looked offended.   
  
"You don't know how it tastes!" He tried one, a little tear appeared at the corner of his eye. "Okay, never mind…..you are right. I need to work up this recipe again.."   
  
"Sorry…" Leila said.   
  
The shower doors opened, Nakia stepping out with a towel on her head and wearing the paladin's pajamas. Sadly, they were out of slippers with a lion head. Like Leila, she was deep in thoughts. She had needed a shower after all this information she had been trying to access all in once.   
  
Small flashback  
  
"You made it through the knight application." Isias has said while sitting on the nearest chair in the dining room. She was alone with the galra agent, friend from the late Ulaz.   
  
"A long time ago, yeah. I am surprised to see you here. Is it true? You are not from Demelvia like me."   
  
"It is very true. I've been visiting and traveling realities through an old friend's request." Isias pointed out, sitting calm at the table.   
  
"What does it have to do with me? I mean, my mother or anyone of the reality I am from." She asked with her hand towards herself. "I am not an asset of this evil war, am I?"   
  
"You aren't a tool. You are an asset to provide peace in this reality." He said in a cold calm manner.   
  
"Just speak already. You knew my mother didn't you?" She asked. "You are scarred with the same mark as we do. Is this a clan thing like master Tsillah said?" She pressured.   
  
"Tsillah, huh? I guess she came out of the shadows, literally speaking." Isias chuckled flatly. "Yes, it is a link to your mother's family. Also, your ancestor's family." He pointed the forehead. "Like anybody of your group, you have all a special task waiting for you in this future. Yours has already begun."   
  
"What do you mean…" She stated. "...by 'begun'?"   
  
"Laneila is the key to your development." He simply answered, before pushing the chair away from the table. "Just Kagero did beforehand."   
  
Nakia turned around to stop him, but he had already passed the threshold. Her fist clenched on the table, her hand on her forehead. She needed a shower to process all this.   
  
End small flashback  
  
Laneila had been comprehensive of the situation. He stayed silent and dormant until she requested his help on a mission. It was an oath they had made on the forging day of his physical sword form. Snapping back to reality, she had noticed she had wandered to a part of the castle she hadn't visited yet.   
  
"From what I can see, I am in the lowest part of the castle." She muttered to herself. She shuffled the towel on her head. "I may be on the way to the Black Lion's hangar if I am correct."   
  
The castle didn't stop to amaze her on the technical side. She wished she could learn more about the place. Putting her shoulder against the wall to relax, she had press a mechanism. She yelped when the wall opened a small door.   
  
"It appears you have found one of Coran's secret corridor." Alfor's AI approached her walking. He wished he could have helped her up despite his current form. "His grandfather built it for special occasions against enemies invasion of some sort." He motioned the dark passageway. "It hasn't been used since Allura's birth."   
  
"Unused?" Nakia asked the AI nodded. She pondered, shaking her head. Her first thought was to prank Coran on a suitable occasion, but it would be for a better moment. Everyone was currently giving themselves the better rest they could get.  
  
Zarkon was still lurking around. They couldn't afford to let their guard down just yet.  
  
  
Allura had summoned the paladins, the girls, Isias and Coran on the bridge. They had been sitting or standing around the room, waiting for the princess to speak up. The energy grew dangerously low. Clara spoke first.   
  
"Princess, if you may start, we are here." She looked at Allura than back at Pidge. They both nodded to each other for a later time together. Allura caught up from her reverie but suddenly left the feeling of speaking to Coran. Her head tilts on the side at the sight of the older altean.   
  
"What is it, princess?" He said as he swiped the weird substance from his forehead. "Is it me, or it's getting hot in here?" He asked.   
  
"Coran, I don't think its the heat. I think you may have the case of the slippery."   
  
"What is that?" Roe asked.  
  
"It's a natural phase older altean goes through on a certain period of their lifetime. It is harmless but quite sticky." Allura giggled to lighten the mood. "This isn't so bad."   
  
The paladins had backed up to avoid any contact with the advisor. Nakia had almost Lance into her arms. She looked at him with a weird expression. He chuckled nervously before walking in her back to not look at the older man.   
  
"This is cringy." Leila commented. Coran tried to walk, but the motion kept him on the same spot, with the evident puddle under him.   
  
"This is offending!" Coran said with a hurt look. He pouted, crossed his arms to his chest, lost his balance, sliding through the door down the corridor. A 'quiznak' heard as an echo.  
  
"We can't leave him like this." Clara sighed. "I can't believe I'm gonna touch this thing.." She walked out of the bridge, avoiding the trail he left. The teledav room where Coran had been contacted the princess from, the squad remained in pure silence.  
"Better, I get it out of my chest… Pidge may have found somebody of my crew." Clara declared.   
  
"What?! Really?!" Roe exclaimed.   
  
"Probably one of them may be alive along with Pidge's brother, Matt." Clara replied after.  
  
"Let's cross our fingers together." Leila said while taking the girls' hands. "We are a team. We help each other." A thought of Keith came back. "Everyone." She smiled fondly to herself.   
  
"I wished I had the courage like you, Clara, to speak up my mind as you do. I want to help Keith so much."   
  
"You care very much about Keith, do you?" Clara teased in return. "Doesn't it sound like a crush?"   
  
"Well, hum...He is good looking, I love how much he gets fired up when he is angry..Also, his fighting style is so mesmerizing.." She sighed.   
  
"Are we all different then?" Roe said with a cute pout.  
  
"I guess we are." Nakia concluded.   
  
"I mean… Clara is good at reading the star charts." Roe started to list. "Leila takes after Pidge's hacking skill, which can be useful for our good. Nakia is the best swordsman aboard, aside from Keith. They are kinda the same fight level."   
  
"And what are you good at?" Clara poked the brunette on the cheek.   
  
"I am good with fighting and thinking about…" Roe trailed off.   
  
"About what?" Leila pressured.   
  
"Dogs, okay!"   
  
The three females facepalmed instantly. Their gaze followed a silhouette gracefully artistically sliding across the room.   
  
"Ladies! Welcome! Please take place!" He stopped in front of them before doing a ballerina spin back to his post across the room. Each girl tried not to step on his slippery trails.   
  
"This is getting long!" Clara declared as she typed on the keyboard. "We are not getting nowhere. We need to get this thing fixed asap!"   
  
"Why not a productive song? It could improve our workflow." Roe said with a smile. The innocent smile somebody would protect. Leila had jumped into the idea.   
  
"Oh..Oh OH! Working do the work!" Coran, Roe, and Leila chanted while the two other females were hiding their ears.   
  
"I can't believe Roe is innocent to let everyone get into her idea train!" Clara yelled.   
  
"Speak for yourself!" Nakia punched the keyboard. The loading finished. "This should've been forbidden since the beginning!"   
  
Allura's face appeared on their feed. She was surprised to see Leila and Roe singing along with Coran. Keith was not far from the princess when he saw the two others in the far back.   
  
"What's wrong? Can't handle a little song without getting your ears to bleed out?" He joked darkly. Clara and Nakia shot him a glare.   
  
"Shut up, Keith!" They both said. Coran stopped at the right station, where they saw the energy bar fully charged.   
  
"Princess, you may try this jump!" Coran warned. "If you will excuse me, I will take a small break!" He slipped through the door with the skill of an ice skating competitor. Damn, he was suitable for his age.   
  
Arriving in the kitchen, he saw the cookies Hunk had baked earlier. Giving it a bite, it broke his teeth directly upon contact. Leila and Hunk had she same fate. He smelt the cookie, scrutinized it. The glossy feeling and the taste was close to the sculterite they needed to plan their jump.   
  
"Coran, the jump cannot work properly. The power room isn't strong enough to hold this." Clara declared on the screen, appearing in the kitchen.   
  
"I may have found us a way to proceed with the jump we need. I will need everyone in the teledav!"   
  
\-----  
  
"I am so happy someone loves my cookies and put them to good use." Hunk awed as he looked Coran distributing the cookies to everyone in the teledav.   
  
"To be sure, I need everyone's cooperation with this task." Coran said.   
  
"Are you sure at least this isn't dangerous for all of us, Coran?" Keith asked, dangling from the side of the wall.   
  
"Oh, this is new. I believe you may or may not survive the surge. It was a pleasure to work all of you." He bowed before them as the team called out his name. "Princess! You may give it a try!"   
  
Allura passed her energy through the teledav, but it died on the spot. Coran opened the door to see everyone still in one piece. He looked at his hands, his sweat, and an idea popped into his head.   
  
"I've got it!" He slipped through the corridor once more. "Princess count ten dobashes so we can launch!"   
  
"Are you sure, Coran?" Allura asked.   
  
"Sure do!"   
  
"All right."   
  
**10**  
  
Coran coated the cookies while sliding quickly from a paladin to another.  
  
 **9**  
  
Roe tried to put herself more comfortably on Shiro's shoulders.   
  
**8**  
  
Nakia's grip was loosening around the edge of the wall.   
  
**7**  
  
Clara was nearly choking Keith alive while she was hanging at his neck.   
  
**6**  
  
Leila was sitting on the ground. She quickly moved to have a better angle from Coran's recommendation.   
  
**5**  
  
Hunk was slightly panicking from their current state of life. He wanted to see his family badly.   
  
**4**  
  
Keith argued with Clara to stop being difficult.   
  
**3**  
  
Lance was whining about not having the right moment to fall in love just yet. Nakia told him to shut up.   
  
**2**  
  
Shiro asked everyone to shut up and focus on the task.  
  
 **1**  
  
The energy flew against every surface coated with Coran's slippery. Coran saw the last stone being uncoated. He slid to Hunk, covered in time his rock, and went against the wall immediately. They managed the jump on time.   
  
Allura opened the door with a happy smile. The sight was rather amusing but yet worrying. Nakia felt from the ceiling with Clara and Keith, putting them into a small pile. Not only were they stroke, but they were also toasted.  
  
  
  
  
  
They decided to follow Coran's idea to head to a place where he visited with the king Alfor centuries ago. They didn't know they were next up for a potential danger once more.  
  
Log 020: Nebula love


	6. Log 020 - Nebula love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nakia is unaware of the girls' scheme to bring her with Lance. Unless something goes wrong?

“That sucks!” Clara declared while swiping the floor. “How come Coran is going with the boys to the Unalu’s special place while we are stuck to do the minor things like-”   
  
“Swiping the floor frustrated that we are stuck here and not anything else?” Leila completed, pausing her own move, with her forearm above the mop’s head. “Ya know there’s better in life. We almost got toasted last day along with the others.”   
  
“Toasted…” Roe murmured. “I want a good bread slice with jam right now.”   
  
“Quit thinking about food!” Clara whined while kicking the mop away. “I’d rather be having some time alone with Shiro so we could definitively catch up about our time…”   
  
“Somebody is in loveeeee.” Leila sang at the end of the corridor.   
  
“Who is?” Roe asked oblivious.   
  
“No. One.” Clara yelled. She made her two finger motion towards Leila with the ‘I’m watching you’ look.   
  
“Are you sure of what you are saying?” Allura’s voice asked. A few squeaks were confirmed she was talking to her friendly mice. “Really? Can you tell me more?” The Altean leaned her ear close.   
  
Clara, Leila and Roe had been against the wall. Their head popped after another to look at the princess near their location.   
  
“No wonder she didn’t join them to have the job done.” Allura said.   
  
“What is she talking about?” Roe whispered.   
  
“Nakia is in her room, right?” Leila whispered too.   
  
“She is doing her Demelvian thing to polish her sword. What’s the point?” Clara answered too with a low voice.   
  
“Girls, what are you three doing?” Allura asked while being in front of them.   
  
“WHOA!” They felt off their hideout, piling up on each other’s back. Roe being squatched under the two.   
  
“Are you done with the swiping?” She asked.   
  
“We could say we are done… for the day.” Leila said with a smile on her lips.   
  
“Is that so.” The Altean princess said. “Were you spying on us?”   
  
“Spying isn’t the word. We heard you talking to the mice. What are they saying about Nakia anyway ?”   
  
“Oh you mean about them.” Allura asked.   
  
“Them? You mean Nakia and somebody else?” Roe asked with a little confused look. The slimmest mouse portrayed Lance’s attitude. Playing the flirt while the second mouse played along with Nakia flustered nature with stubborn look.   
  
“Oh.” The trio said at the same time. “OH!” They exclaimed.  
  
“Let’s make a bet then.” Clara said with some fire in her eyes.   
  
“A bet?” Roe asked. “If it is harmless, count me in!”   
  
“Oh, girls. I am the second in row to let you know I know more about Lance than you combined. He won’t be fooled by your actions. I can tell you that.”   
  
“Oh Leila, my dear Leila. It’s on.” Clara said with determination.   
  
“Can I say I know better of Nakia’s action because we trained more alone than you two combined.” Roe said with a deadpan look. Clara and Leila looked away with an innocent whistle.   
  
“Also princess!” Leila pointed the altean with her finger. Allura pointed herself. “Don’t tell anyone about this. A N Y O N E.”   
  
“Is this an Earth custom to do this kind of thing?” Allura asked. “What do you win?”   
  
“Nothing. It’s only to have these two reunited at last! We can’t stand them being lovey dovey while they are not a couple!” Leila snapped. “I’m off!” She ran off.   
  
The two brunettes did the same leaving the altean princess alone in the corridor. She looked at the right and left seeing the buckets and mops on the ground. “Oh quiznak…”   
  
  
  
One of Allura’s mice decided to head into Nakia’s room. The demelvian girl was polishing the sword with a special coating. She looked at the blade before putting it on her lap, passing the rug on the cutting edge. Three more rubbing, she lifted it, eyed the scales details on the blade itself. “Alright done.” The door caught her attention when she sat the mice coming in, jumping on the edge and landing into her hand. “Hey little guy, what’s up?”   
  
Putting the sword away in its sheith, Nakia got up from the bed. She walked towards door to open seeing the girls running down the corridor. The blue mouse squeaked in her earlobe to get the attention away. “I wonder what you are talking about…” She mumbled. She saw the paladins and Coran back in the shuttle bay. She skipped towards the bridge. Coming in while petting the blue mouse, she turned to have a start when she saw the extreme looking hairstyle of Allura just now.   
  
“Oh there you are!” Allura said as she looked at Nakia and the little blue one. “You missed this opportunity to help the others with their hair dressing skill.”   
  
“I see that…” Nakia commented. The doors opened once again letting the paladins in. Lance was the last one to come in with an expected guest.   
  
“Sorry to ask this Lance… But is that really a cow?” Nakia asked with a surprised expression.  
  
“Yeah, we won this cow from the Earth store they had over there. Who knew this place is like a local mall we have on Earth. Coran with the whole get up to disguise ourselves for nothing.” Pidge said as she sat on her chair, slumping down.   
  
“Don’t ask any further, we were chased by this mall cop all over the place.” Hunk said with a shiver through his body. “I haven’t run that much since the Garrison class with Commander Reid. She was fair with us but yet a fierce teach’.”   
  
“I miss Earth so much.” Lance complained. “I want to see my family… get myself a girlfriend… Go back to a classic teenager life.”   
  
Nakia looked at him a bit disappointed. The blue mouse pulled her earlobe again. She smiled and nuzzled his face. Lance looked at her reaction and seem also disappointed.   
  
“Guys!” Roe’s face appeared on the main screen of the bridge. “I would like a little help to test out some new moves for your training regiment. Do you mind coming in and help me out? Pretty please.” She asked with her two hands joined together.   
  
The crew blinked their eyes twice.   
  
“I DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS!” Pidge yelled while being pulled backward on Hunk’s back. She heard a pop from her back. “Oh GOD!”   
  
“Oh relax Pidge, this isn’t much ya know! You can manage just fine!” Roe said while she had been looking at the others doing it.”   
  
Leila was having a little problem with Keith pushing her in the back towards with her two legs opened. “Oh geez! This isn’t enough I could do it even harder!” Leila lied. Keith took it as an idea and pushed on her back further. “OKAY I LIED!”   
  
“Are you sure you are okay with this Shiro…?” Clara asked when she was with him doing the same thing than Keith and Leila. Shiro was sitting on the ground.   
  
“It is quite alright. It gives an opening for the muscles to exercise.” He said with a grunt when she pushed on his back too.   
  
“Are you two doing alright?” Roe looked at Lance and Nakia paired together.   
  
“Pshht! I’m doing number one!” Lance said with pride. “I’m flexible like a swan!” Nakia pushed on his back so hard, her chest pressed against it. The moment he realized the press, he lost it. Roe gave a small devil smile. Who knew this girl could innocent yet so evil! Lance fainted in the back. “LANCE!” Nakia called out.   
  
“Why not trying this!” Roe showed. “COLLECTIVE HUG!”   
  
“Get me some water!” Nakia yelled.   
  
  
  
Hunk and Pidge had gotten their fair share of hugs during the training, went to their own merry way for the evening. Nakia came out of the shower, her hair stuck up into a ponytail with her usual floof into a bread around her head. The group had been relaxing so far in the living room with some pillows scattered around the floor along with some blankets.   
  
“I’ve thought of a relaxing game!” Leila said. Nakia sighed of relief. “Spin the bottle!”   
  
Lance choked his drink. Clara had just sat on the ground with a smug look on her face. Nakia looked at the girls. “What is this game?” She asked. Roe sat next to her with her hair still wet from the shower, put into a similar fashion bun of Allura.   
  
“It’s super simple and easy.” Leila said.   
  
“You spin, you confess or do something stupid.” Keith beat her to her own game. “It’s a lame game.”   
  
“Lame like you mullet!” Lance barked back.   
  
“I will show you!” Keith growled.   
  
“I’m sure you are not even game to do something stupid yourself!” Lance challenged.   
  
“Oh, I’m game!” Keith declared.  
  
It took several spins and quite surprising results to the game to finally fall into the path Leila had planned. Leila had confessed a terrible secret she didn’t want to share with anyone at the garrison for the sake of her own sanity.  
“Not that is off the bag, my reputation is now off the grid.” She intended the pun. They were in space.   
  
“Don’t speak!” Clara said with deadly tone. “I just gave you the worst performance as a dancer and a singer...! I am the one ashamed.”   
  
“I just confessed when I visited my brother in grad school, I drank so much that I tried to steal a police dog!!” Roe hid her eyes with her two hands, shamely.   
  
“Now that is out of the box, we need two extra turns to finish the score.” Leila said with a smile.   
  
“Why two?” Keith asked. “We can continue, I am not over with Lance.”   
  
“Nevermind!” Leila spin the bottle. It felt on Lance, finally the victim she wanted to scare the shit out of his pants. The glint in her eyes was pure evil. “Okay Lance. Truth or dare.”   
  
“I will go with truth.” Lance shrugged for once. He yawned obviously tired of this.   
  
“What is your object you are still sleeping with?” Leila asked with a smile.   
  
Lance’s eyes shrunk in an instant. “Don’t you-”   
  
“Lanceee~” Leila pointed the invisible watch on her wrist. “Spill it or you will be doing something worse as a punishment.” She grinned.   
  
“FINE! I STILL HAVE MY BABY BLANKET!”   
  
Everyone was surprised at his confession. The next second, they were all laughing at him. Nakia had been sitting in her corner, stifling a small giggle. He huffed them and turned the bottle on his turn. It landed on Nakia. The victim! Finally.   
  
“Alright...Nakia...Hm..” Lance mumbled, scratching the back of his neck. “Truth or dare?”   
  
“Dare.” Nakia said without hesitation.   
  
“Try on my coat.” He said. Nakia blinked. She mouthed a short ‘Sure’. She got up along with Lance, they exchanged gaze as he put off the coat from his shoulder to put it on hers. “Keep it until the end of the game.”   
  
“O-Okay.” She replied, she sat back down. A few bottle turns later, it felt on Nakia once more. Leila grinned at the sight. Nakia was snuggling the coat, giving it a small scent and she had her eyes closed.   
  
“N-A-K-I-A!” She repeated. Nakia opened her eyes, seeing everyone looking at her. She zipped the coat to her nose. “Alright, it’s your turn. Truth or dare.”   
“Truth.” Nakia said with a tiny voice a bit muffled by the coat fabric.   
  
“What is your biggest flaw as a woman?” She asked with a suggestive manner. “Or more importantly, what is your emotion to declare or even portray.?”   
  
“I..huh…” Nakia gulped. “I don’t know!” She yelled. She knew her biggest flaw as a woman she didn’t have the gut to flirt with somebody. Unlike Lance who did it like a charm even with bad results.   
  
“Nakia you have to-”   
  
“That’s enough! It’s getting ridiculous!” Nakia said getting up. “I don’t want to answer and that’s it.” She got up and gave it back to Lance. “It’s late I am going to bed.” She walked out of the living room.   
  
“Dang it.” Leila cursed.   
  
“Leila, what’s all this about?!” Lance looked at her with a frown.   
  
“Nothing. It was only a game...I guess.”   
  
“If you were playing again the matchmaker, I am done with you.” Lance said while getting up too and leaving. “You know I hate this when it comes to force somebody on me.”   
  
The others were left with Keith alone. “So it was true.” Keith said.   
  
“Shush Keith. We tried and we failed.” Roe said with a sadden voice.   
  
“Who said I didn’t?” Clara asked. “I am the one left.” She grinned. “Time for the Lock down plan.”   
  
“Lo-Lock down?” Roe asked.   
  
“If you can’t bring them together naturally.” Clara started as she gotten up. “You put them in the same room and lock it until they spill their feelings for each other.”   
  
“Sounds like that cheezy movie I saw back at the garrison with friends.” Leila commented with a grimace.   
  
“Movies can be helpful.” Clara said with a smirk. “Let them be for a couple of days. I will prepare the plan. Let’s call the bet done. This is a little crisis.”   
  
The others went their seperate way.   
  
“So, is it true Lance sleep with his baby blanket?” Keith asked Leila. Leila facepalmed.  
  
  
  
The castleship was able to move further into space after a couple of days. The Squad had their daily reunion with Coran and the AI of the King about their next method of training. The Paladin’s code opened a new chapter for the matter.   
  
Alfor had been insistent to make the girls’ knowledge to be at their fullest if anything happened to the others. Clara had left earlier than the three other teammates to go fetch the Cuban boy to make her plan ran into action for good.   
  
Nakia had been sitting on the couch with all the mice by her side. Allura had some meeting with Coran right after the Squad’s daily one and she had to let the mice out of the matter for the moment being. Nakia had proposed to keep an eye on them while reading about altean technology. Her finger was gracing on the yellow mouse, happy from such luxurious treatment.   
  
“Who could have believed the Altean words are almost similar to Demelvian language. I should’ve known better.” She swiped the screen on the side for the next page to appear.  
  
The pink mouse climbed on top of Nakia’s head, her ears twitching at the voices the other side of the door. The door opened automatically. Nakia turned around to see nothing until Lance was shoved in roughly.   
  
“WHAT THE HELL CLARA?!” Lance yelled at the other brunette.   
  
“You don’t come out until this is solved! We are sick to see two making googly eyes to each other and not take the initiative to talk in each other’s face.” She closed the door shut in Lance’s face. He was shocked.  
  
Two minutes later, Nakia and Lance were sitting in complete silence. The silence is comfortable to endure. They took a breather and chuckled together. Lance scratched the back of his neck and tapped his finger on his knee.   
  
“Lance/Nakia…” They said at the same time. They laughed awkwardly. They stopped laughing and sighed in unison. Lance decided to jump into the lion’s mouth.  
  
“Have you noticed what they tried to do to us last day?” Lance asked. “They made feel us to be together at numerous occasions. Doesn’t it lead you and me to something?” He let a dry laugh out.   
  
“If I would have asked a girl like you to date me, as everyone is thinking wanting us to be, I would have been confessing at the last minute.” He sighed. “Just like now. Clara was right…” He groaned.  
  
“Unlike the princess… You are far more what I am looking for as a girl. You don’t need to be royalty for what you are… that said… smart, brave, fierce in battle… Not mentioning how badass you look with your sword.” He chuckled, hiding his face. “Also… how much it makes different of the others with your past. Everyone is so different. You were able to pass through all this hardship on your own… I’m glad...you came along ya know… You could be even more-” A hand on his mouth stopped his blabbering all of sudden.   
  
“That’s enough Lance. I get it.” Nakia said.   
  
“Wargn? Nealry?” (What? Really?) Lance mumbled against her palm. She took off her hand and nodded.   
  
“Yes I do because its similar how much Laneila described me the first time we met.”   
  
“What about him!?” Lance suddenly snapped.   
  
“Calm down...Let me explain.” Nakia took a breath and exhaled. “In Demelvia, there’s a tale about a mirror. The tale explains that if you meet somebody meant to be your loved one or your partner in another fashion sense of looks, you will be falling in love.” Lance relaxed a bit. “Laneila is the link of a soul mate in another place. This other place is your reality Lance. You are the one I’ve been linked to.”   
  
It was Lance’s turn to be speechless from her words. Was she lying? She shook her head as a no. “I am telling you the truth.” Nakia said and continued. “I knew… the hints he gave me and how much you went to save me from Drokot last time meant for me, maybe you were the one.”   
  
“Well...hm..I couldn’t leave you like this! You would have ended as much as a pancake.” Lance blurted out.   
  
“A ‘bloody’ pancake.” Nakia added.   
  
Lance chuckled at her dark, he smiled. She melted at the sight. “You are look so handsome with such smile.”   
  
“Let me tell you are way more radiant than me when it comes to smiling. You, all snuggled up in my coat last day, was the proof.” Lance added. “Maybe you are the one destinated to become my Miss Blue Lion, am I right?” He wiggled his eyebrows. She pushed his face off, giggling. “I love your laugh.”   
  
“I love you for you who you are.” Nakia said. Suddenly she realised her words.   
  
“Nakia…” Lance blushed. “Will you…”   
  
“Let’s go.” She pulled him along. She approached the nearest wall of the living room leaving the book behind. A secret passage opened.   
  
“N-neat!” Lance said while following her. She put her finger on her lips while the door closed.   
“Hey guys? Are you alright?” Clara asked. She opened the door to find the room empty. “What on earth happened to them!?”   
  
“GIRLS! They are gone! Alert the paladins!!” Clara yelled down the hallway.   
  
“Come to think this castle has secret hallways. That’s so cool!” Lance beamed. “Now we can have serious alone time.” He looked at Nakia with a warm smile. He was surprised with a pair of lips on his. He melted into her touch, his two arms around her waist.   
  
“GUYS THIS IS SERIOUS! LANCE AND NAKIA ARE GONE MISSING!” Clara said on a screen in every move.   
  
“You lost the bet Clara.” Leila said from her post.   
  
“That doesn’t count!” She growled.   
  
“WHEREVER YOU TWO ARE, I WILL FIND YOU!” Clara declared.   
  
Allura was sitting on her bed while watching Lance and Nakia having their moment in the hidden corridor. “Who knew your secret's safe with the mice. Good job you guys.” She high-fived the four mice on her shoulder.  
  
Log 021: Unity


	7. Log 021 - Unity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kolivan requested the help of the Squad on a planet. This is where they encounter a member of the Blade but also had another encounter of the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back on Deviantart, last year, I organised a fan contest to feature an Voltron in a chapter.   
> The original character is a member of the Blade of Marmora and one of Kolivan's high ranked fighters.

“Leave him alone for god’s sake!” Leila snapped at the team. She had been on the edge ever since Keith had come back with Shiro from the Blade of Marmora base. It has been a few days, and the energy aboard had shifted drastically.   
  
The discovery was found after Keith and Allura had run away. They thought of a measure of prevention of why Zarkon was easily tracking them down. It occurred while they left, the castleship had been under attack by Zarkon. It finally confirmed the two theories about Allura and Keith not being the said targets for the lions of Voltron.   
  
Shiro had finally given the green light to go where the coordinates of the base of operation Ulaz had spoken of earlier to be discovered. Isias had been one of them to open the door easily after he confirmed his identification. Shiro, Isias and Keith left with the Red lion.   
  
“He didn’t ask to be treated this way.” Leila looked at the paladins sitting on the bridge. “Keith is Keith, end of the line. It doesn’t change him much as he is because he is our friend.”   
  
“Was.” Lance emphasized.   
  
“Lance!” Leila yelled at him, seeing him flinch at her tone. “You are being the same jerk again! I cannot believe your hopes of being this high level headed would affect your damn brain.” She pointed the Blue paladin with her finger.   
  
“Keith is Keith, huh?” Clara tested.   
  
“Yes, he is.” Leila said with a hurtful tone. “He is still a part of the team, although he learned a harsh truth. Keith sought for it… He found it… What about it!”   
  
Allura had been looking away the entire time. She knew she was blaming the galra nation for the genocide of her people. Learning one of her crew members ‘lied’ to her about his origin, she decided to cast him aside.  
  
“At least, we believe in Keith if you guys don’t.” Roe added. This stung coming from the short brunette sitting beside her friends.  
  
  
Coran had been looking for a few places. They could actually collect the scolterite stones for the teledav. He was even precise to the Voltron team, where they got them. The Squad recoiled at the thought.   
  
“Coran! That’s disgusting!” Clara said with a grimace.   
  
“This is the natural way to get them. That’s why Keith and Hunk will be going.” Coran pointed out the Red and Yellow paladins. “There’s no other way to make another jump unless you want to get fried.” He grinned.   
  
The Yellow lion left within the wormhole Allura had summoned for them. Coran had been typing away at his station and looked at the screen. “Alright, ladies. You have a mission.”   
  
“We do?” Roe asked while getting up from her sitting position.   
  
“You will.” Coran said, turning around, displaying a planet on the screen. “Planet Neovalia, there is a base of a member of the Blades hiding there. They are at the head of a group of rebels. Since the Blades are working to take down the Galra empire, they have some aliens species biding the rule and rebelling against Zarkon. I am impressed.” He commented.   
  
“What do we have to do there?” Leila questioned.   
  
“You will meet the member on the planet, give them the information their Chief leader, Kolivan, has sent you for the plan we must work on taking Zarkon down.” Coran explained further.  
  
The girls met in the shuttle bay. They knew Clara would be the designed pilot. They had some food just in case. Leila made sure her guns were fully loaded. Nakia and Roe had their small gauntlet to their wrist, pushing a simple pressure to make them change into their armor. Clara checked her altean staff ready. Coran had come to bid them goodbye for their mission.   
  
Out of the blue, before they could move away, he pulled in a hug. It wasn’t a joking one this time. “I am so proud of you girls. Be aware of your surroundings and come back safely.” He spoke. The warmth in his tone showed he genuinely cared about them not as a mentor but as a father figure to them.   
  
“We will. Thank you, Coran.” Roe said with a soft smile.   
  
They climbed into the little ship. It fled out into space and passed through the wormhole Allura had them assigned. The map showed a beautiful planet in the grey and red gradient with many clouds around. The sky cleared up to Earth-like vegetation, different from the Olkari. They landed in a hidden space where they could be secretive as possible. They opened the hatch, put their foot down.   
  
A charged load of laser pointed in their direction made them stop moving.   
  
“Really! Again?!” Leila snapped. “Can’t we land peacefully for once?!”   
  
“Wait!” Roe showed her hands in surrender. “We are here to help.” Searching in her astral pouch on her thigh, she came out with the Voltron device. “We were sent here by the princess Allura from the planet Altea. One of your colleagues also gave us your coordinates. Isias!”   
  
An individual lifted their hand up, signaling the weapons to drop. She had the same uniform as Kolivan, primarily and with many cloths like Isias and Ulaz. “You said Isias, didn’t you?” The voice asked from behind the mask.   
  
“Yes! He came aboard the ship and he went back where you work together.” Roe said with her two hands still in the air like the three other girls as well.   
  
“You can drop your hands.” The voice spoke. “They are allies. Continue what you were doing.” They warned their team.  
  
They dropped their hood backward, the mask phasing out of the face of the Blade’s member. It revealed a beautiful woman with tan skin, with teal marks under her eyes, a crest looking star on her forehead. Her eyes were made of mesmerizing colors to be lost in. Her teal and white tuff hair were braided back her neck.   
  
“I thought Voltron would be with five paladins.” She spoke. Her voice sounded so motherly on an individual level. “Are you all females?”   
  
“Whoa, whoa!” Clara crossed her arms in a dismissal. “We are NOT the paladins first. We are the side team taking care of the other missions.” She sighed. “Can we at least get a bit acknowledgment here… Geez...barnacle…”   
  
“Who are you, girls then?” She asked.   
  
“Aren’t you supposed to be the first to introduce yourself? You almost caught us…” Leila pointed out.   
  
“My apologies. You may be right. I’m Mauve, a member of the Blade of Marmora. One of the highest rank of them, to say the least.” She said.   
  
Each girl introduced themselves as each member of the Coran’s Squad. Her eyes felt on Nakia when she mentioned her home was in another dimension, she softens at her.   
  
“What are you after?” Clara asked Mauve.   
  
“Me? Only the peace of this reality.”   
  
“You are the second person to use this term. Nakia was the first, or even Coran is the more intellectual of everyone about stories and such.” Clara replied.   
  
“Also, giving a chance to some others to have their own freedom to choose.” She turned around to look at the rebels packing some vital herbs and choosing between the water suppliers. “I am glad we have a more extended team to help to make a move against Zarkon’s fall down.” Mauve said with certitude.   
  
A slow clap brought the attention of everyone towards somebody else. Rabbi was standing there with her hands, giving one last contact with each other. She jumped out from the tree she was hidden in.   
  
Nakia took out her sword, Roe got her two daggers ready, Leila charged her two guns and Clara spun her staff. A male appeared on the woman’s side. He looked relatively young, around the girls’ age. He had his blue hair pulled back, and a portion of his face seems to be dangerously wounded and freshly healed. He had his gun ready towards the girls, including Mauve. The rebels got their weapons available as well, but Rabbi waved her finger.   
  
“Ta..ta..” Some galra scouts and sentries had circled them up already. “This is not how it works with Wieder’s orders.”  
  
“Wieder…” Nakia tested. This guy wouldn’t stop...god’s sake.   
  
“And for you.” She looked at Nakia. “You have been a bad girl last time we met.” She punched the nearest tree, shattering it into the piece to the core. A new mechanical arm was where Laneila had cut her arm when they first met again.  
  
 **Flashback**  
  
 _“Thank you, Rebbi. You can dispose of the remaining subjects of the test.” He chuckled darkly. Nakia’s eyes grew wide. Able to open a portal at the end of her power, Nakia quickly made Leila push the people in.  
  
Rebbi used her gun, shooting Leila in the shoulder. Leila yelped in pain. “‘Make another move and she won’t have a head the next time I shoot.” She threatened. She wasn’t aware of the presence behind her morphing into a humanoid. Laneila was standing with the sword in hand. A quick move was felt through her body as she saw her arm falling off.   
  
The water elf nearly jumped at her only to be back into the sword. She screamed in pain as she looked at Nakia with a death glare. She wanted her dead now. Nakia was panting, trying to get herself up. The red and black lion landed roughly. The rest of the refugees took place within them. Keith took Leila in his arms. Shiro was quick on his feet to pick up the sword and get the anthro-woman away from the mage. Scooping Nakia up, the black lion’s jaw closed as soon as Shiro stepped in._   
  
**FLASHBACK END**  
  
“I’m grateful to Wieder to let me have a brand new arm. This time, I will choke the life of out of you four. Especially you.” She pointed out the Demelvian.   
  
“Who are you?” Mauve threatened as she got her Marmora ceremonial sword out.   
“Who am I?” Rabbi asked. “Somebody who doesn’t need your concern, sunite.” Mauve’s ears stood up at the mention of the species. “I’ve been a lot of intel from a little student of yours. Zan. Come here.”   
  
It was the same male who stood behind her earlier. His gun was down this time and looked at the kangaroo woman. “I’m quite pleased with the information he has given us. Wieder and his partnership with Lotor will be more than enough to continue what he needs to do.”   
  
**LOTOR?**  
  
The Squad was puzzled by the name. They never heard or see of them as Rabbi spoke more about their plan. Clara eyed the sunite. “Mauve?” She asked.   
  
Zan looked away from Mauve’s gaze. She knew something was up from the beginning when they started to work together. His alone time when he left the base to explore the planet was all a lie. It was the real reason - to meet up with Rabbi and spill all the details. A chuckle came out of Mauve’s lips and looked at the other woman.   
  
Rabbi noticed some movement on the side and stopped a foot, twisting the ankle with a loud crack. The rebel felt on the ground crying in pain.   
  
“Muh… This is annoying.” Rabbi commented. “Get the squad and bring them along.”   
  
Rabbi turned her head over her shoulder when she heard some noise behind her. Sentries being slaught and galra scouts being put down by the Squad.   
  
“Surrender Rabbi.” Nakia said as she pointed the sword towards the woman. “We won’t need to fight if you do.”   
  
The rebels managed to take the guns from the fallen down soldiers and redirect them on the female enemy. She lifted her hand up. A series of gunshots were deployed towards the group of rebels. They were all deflected by Nakia’s sword. She stood her ground with her defence stance.   
  
“ALWAYS BEEN THE ONE TO BUTT IN!” Rabbi snarled. She made a jump towards the Squad only to be blocked by Mauve and slammed to the ground with her tail.   
  
“We are your opponent now.” Mauve smirked. Leila put her guns in position and Clara appeared next to Mauve. They all three nodded together, ready to take to the woman on.  
  
Rabbi punched a valve on her robotic arm, which injected her with a substance inside her body. Somebody landed on her side with a gun ready. Nakia’s eyes widen at the sight of the man. The female anthro started to change gradually and looked way more feral-like looks. Her fur was wilder, her suit had stretched slightly, her kangaroo tail was broader and thicker. She slammed her tail against the ground, taking away any close rocks or trees.   
  
“I will take this sunite down with me if I need to…” She growled. “You take care of the priority.” She looked at the blonde next to her.   
  
He nodded.   
  
“Matsuhiro?” Nakia asked still stunned by his face. “Is that really you?”   
  
His head turned in her direction, as well. His eyes shrunk at her form, her position and her stance. What was she doing in this place?  
  
“I could ask the same thing to you, NEB.” He said with a smirk, from the inside, Nakia couldn’t differ which emotion was emitting. He didn’t phase in her presence. Nakia snapped back to reality when he grabbed her wrist. “It might be easier than I thought it would then.”   
  
Nakia’s gaze changed from shock to a determined one. Roe’s training had struck her like a lightning bolt just in time. She grabbed his wrist in return, making it like they were an unbroken chain, slid her leg down his foot. He was able to avoid her low kick, until she pulled him forward, twisting his arm into his back and kicking the rear of his leg and make him kneel.   
  
She turned around to see Mauve having the moment of her life against Rabbi. Leila was shooting her while she shielded her face from the fire. Mauve approached the nearest leg to pull it down, but she received the tail of the kangaroo mage in the front, sending her to the ground.   
  
“HAHAHA! PATHETIC!” Rabbi laughed in a low feral voice.   
  
“Girls step down!” A voice called.   
  
A ray of energy blasted the source of the power of the arm of Rabbi, shattering it in the process. The body started to regress to have to her previous form. She was sweating and was bathing in a pool of purple liquid.   
  
“DAMN YOU ZAN!” Rabbi yelled at him.   
  
“Who said I was your side, wench.” He prepared the gun fully loaded again. “It was enough to get the information needed from your group, getting along just fine.” He pointed the gun at Matsuhiro, going for Nakia’s neck. “Leave the paladins of Voltron of this and get out our place now.”   
  
“Like hell, we will!” Rabbi snapback. She snapped her fingers to see only two white lines passing next to her. Her newly destroyed arm and her other flesh arm were sliced clean from her body. Her scream became hysterical. Roe and Nakia were behind her. She jumped to attack them but she received Mauve’s tail in the stomach with a massive kick in the back.   
  
“DAMN YOU ALL!”   
  
“BLACK TRINITY!” Nakia summoned her magic spell from above Rabbi’s body. The woman’s eyes widen in horror when she saw the blow hit her in full force. A scream of agony echoing in the valley.   
  
Matsuhiro stood there in pure horror when he saw the magic Nakia used. Her eyes were not golden like the sun nor the innocent chestnut brown he had known when they were kids. They were violent purple hues with a spiritual manifestation of a lion.   
  
The rebels surrounded him with their weapons. A ship came above them with a spotlight on them. The wind had picked up. A rope dropped on the ground. He grabbed it to be pulled up along. Nakia stood there with her eyes back to her natural brown color. The exchange of gaze between the blonde fighter and her remained a few seconds. She might have imagined a hurt and concern look on his features until he was out of sight.  
  
Mauve looked at the Squad in top shape. The Sunite eyed the unconscious body of the dismembered anthro female.   
  
“Gather all the essentials. We are leaving this planet. We will stay here any longer.” Mauve ordered. Her long beautiful ears twitched at the appearance of a ship in the skies. The Castle of Lions looked majestic with the white color and the teal neon lights.   
  
“Girls. You have been a good help for our team.” She aid pleased f their effort. “Sadly, we have to part ways here. Fret not, we will meet soon again.”   
  
She approached her rebel crew. Putting her Blade mask on again. She pats the young Zan’s shoulder as a signal of approval. He had done an excellent job.   
  
Another shuttle landed next to the group. Hunk, Keith and Pidge were inside and waved at them. Pidge took a look at the unconscious body on the ground, scanning her vitals.   
  
“She is still alive but her body had taken major damage. She is lucky to have survived such force.” She eyed the girls. “Who did this?”   
  
“I did.” Nakia commented. “Magic did the trick, I guess..” She was still spaced out about the guy she had just met. Matsuhiro, one of the kidnapped children she had been with, had sided with Wieder… Why?   
  
“Guys, if you don’t mind, can we go back aboard? I have a little impression the galra will be back to get her again. The others are leaving as well, so, maybe, shouldn’t we too?” He laughs nervously.   
  
“I agree with Hunk.” Roe said, playing with her hair. “Nakia, are you coming?” Catching the mage out of her reverie.   
  
“Yeah, I’m right behind.” The Squad and the paladins went back respectively to their shuttles. As they started to lift up, Nakia had been checking the ground from above. The two arms were resting on the dirt ground, the unconscious body of Rabbi leaning against the rocks and the striking path she had unleashed around this vegetation. It was frightening how much the power of KAOS was given to her. She closed her hands and hugged them to her chest. She was afraid of herself now.   
  
  
Allura had added the coordinates of Mauve’s group to make sure they could track them in need of them. King Alfor’s Ai had secretly put it away in case of corruption. She swiped away the screen as she turned to the Squad standing there, with their helmets in their hands.   
  
“Thank you for your collaboration, girls.” Allura said. “I didn’t think Wieder would have deployed one of his members on the planet you were sent. Now, we know rebels can be thrust worthy for intel when we need them.” Allura looked at the picture of the woman the Squad had just met. “I have a feeling Mauve will be a good alliance along with the Blade of Marmora.”   
  
She let go of them after she had their rapport with their attacking enemy. Leila had decided to leave along with Keith, pausing him from walking. “Can I give you some company?” She asked he nodded softly. She followed right behind him.   
  
“I think we have a second couple aboard.” Clara teased. She received Nakia’s elbow in her stomach. It didn’t hurt much but she knew it was only a joke.   
  
“Remember what she said earlier. Leave Keith be.” Nakia said.   
  
“Yeah. I know.” They eyed the Altean princess discussing with Coran on their next step. Nakia excused herself to the shower room. Roe and Clara let her go.   
  
Standing under the hot water, Nakia had her two hands against the wall. Memories from the lab had been coming back. Rabbi had Eshown finally her sadistic side and the monstrosity she could’ve become. Meeting Matsuhiro wasn’t planned either. The soft smile he once wore as a young pre-teen was no along but a cold blank expression. His hair was smooth at the touch and his body had matured so much. She suppressed the image from her brain at once. She drowned herself into thoughts with the shower sounds echoing in her earlobes.  
  
She knew she would be facing Wieder face-to-face one day. The deadliest way possible.  
  
  
Wieder’s ship approached the location of the planet they went on. Three small fleets approached the campsite which had been entirely deserted after a few hours. Wieder stepped down with Matsuhiro by his side and another young man.   
  
“Ghanor. Take Rabbi aboard. Make sure she gets the treatment needed for her wounds.” Wieder spoke.   
  
“Yes sir.” Ghanor responded.   
  
He looked at the vampire as he walked to the unconscious body, the loss of blood was significant around her and the quintessence puddle was still fresh from the cut. Wieder was examinating the pool. He looked around where the thunder had struck.   
  
“Finally.” Wieder smirked in the most darkest way possible. “She is definitively back.”   
  
“Sir?” Matsuhiro questioned.   
  
“Your little friend will be among us soon, my boy. The ‘Never Ending Blood’ project is back on track. All thanks to the Black Veil influence on Nakia. Soon, she will dispose of the crew members on her own.” He closed his hand into a fist.   
  
“Commander.” A scout approached. “Lotor wants to have a word with you. He has found something that may interest you.”   
  
“Thank you.” The druids were getting the remaining parts of the lost limbs of Rabbi. They exited the planet. Out of the stratosphere, he pushed a button causing the planet to explode. The planet was no more but a pile of floating rocks. Passing by a Webblum ate the remains of what once lived on it ready to be reborn.  
  
Log 022 - Spacedogs (Beta Traz ARC)


	8. Log 022 -

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro, Pidge and Lance are tasked to get Slav out of the intergalactic prison. Roe took interest in the galra culture. Studying, she had taken an interest into their alien type of dog? What could go wrong?

Matsuhiro felt on his knees, coughing loudly with his hand around his neck. His other hand helped him as a support. A few droplets of blood felt on the metallic ground. Wheezing to catch his breath, he looked up at the man standing at his feet.  
  
“Excellent work, Matsuhiro.” Wieder looked at the blonde, sitting on the ground. “You managed to take the essential.”  
  
“What was that for… We had enough already in the vials you are keeping…” The young vampire commented, only to be be grabbed by the throat, pulled up and given the fresh sample right into the mouth.  
  
“What about this then?” He dropped the young man on the floor again. He crouched to his level and took his jaw to make him look in the eye. “Look at you, your craving is more higher than before.”  
  
Matsuhiro’s eyes dilated while he tasted the last remnant of the blood drops he just had given him, a slight bloody drool on his side of his lips. Wieder got up as he let go of the boy’s jaw harshly. The blonde got up slowly, his gaze dazed. He half lidded his orbs and observed the commander putting the cap on the vial.  
  
[](https://sta.sh/09t6nc3tlqh)

  
“It seems the results are positive. You respond quickly to Nakia’s blood sample. Who would have thought after a decade in this reality,your body would have only sustained to this vial.”  
  
This ruby eyes felt on the younger one. “Congratulations Matsuhiro. You might get a little surprise once you two meet again.”  
  
“Huh?” He questioned.  
  
“You will see. Once you get really the scent of this new sample addictive, you will try to get way more than intended.” Wieder’s gaze darken with a twisted grin. “I promise you will love it. Definitely.”  
  
  
  
“Alright guys, ready to fire.” Lance said while he prepared the right angle of shot. The screen displayed the route the two paladins under his cockpit getting ready to be projected to.  
  
“Be careful, you’ve got only one shot.” Pidge spoke.  
  
“Don’t worry Pidge. I am an excellent shot.” Lance replied through the comm. “Besides, I scored real good for the nicest girl in the whole galaxy.” He commented while looking right upfront. “What can I ask more?”  
  
“You did?” Pidge questioned.  
  
“Yes, that’s my thing!” Lance exclaimed happy.  
  
“Since when?!” Pidge yelled.  
  
“Just get ready.” He commented back as he grinned, pushed the two handles of the Blue lion forward. The jaw opened making the Green and Black paladins out. Their helmets displayed the route to follow.  
  
A base in the middle of a asteroid field showed up. Surrounded by a magenta colored particle barrier, it showed how much the security was there. Around the facility there was a lot of small bots similar to Rover. Pidge took the chance to let her friend back on the Castleship.  
  
Hacking through the first system, she was able to deactivate the main program. Shiro put his galra hand on the identification pad where the doors opened for them. They landed inside with the gravity setting them to the ground normally.  
  
Her gauntlet scanned and hacked the second security system. “I’m blocking the sensors. Lance, you’ve only got four doboshes to scan the base and land your lion before they are back online.” As she spoke, a little terminal opened to show the bots being cut offline for the sake of the operation.  
  
“Copy that.” Lance replied. From the Blue Lion, hiding on an asteroid close by the prison, Lance watched the small robots stopping from moving. “Initializing sonic scan now.” The lion roared to let the giant gun-like appear on its back. The waves of ultrasound passed next to the prison.  
  
The Cuban looked at the loading results. “Sonic scan complete. Uploading the data.”  
  
“Perfect. We are right on top of your entry point. Get to my location. Hurry, you have 60 ticks.” Pidge said while typing in the code to let the main entrance open for the Blue lion to get in.  
  
“I’m on my way.” The blue lion flew directly to the entry point Pidge had mentioned. He got inside as the security system started to operating again. The two other doors closed behind the Blue Lion making the Blue paladin out of the mechanical beast.  
  
The silence finally installed itself once the paladins left the hangar where the Blue Lion was parked behind his particle barrier. Their main objective was the alien tech savvy known as Slav. They wished to know how he looked like. They brushed it off.  
  
One helmet popped out of the engine of the Blue lion. She looked around, narrowed her eyes and sighed of relief. “Coast is clear.” She said. She didn’t hear anything. She kicked the two others out of the hiding place. “Get moving!”  
  
“More gentle geez!” Clara said with a scowl on her face.  
  
“Can be.” Nakia looked at the other brunette. “Blame her for this risky thing. Shiro told us to not come but…”  
  
Clara glared the other girl, giggling. “I do have a good reason.”  
  
“Tell us then.” Both asked the young fighting instructor.  
  
“Well…” She started. She pictured how the scene went while describing it. “A few days before we managed our way to Olkarion, I made my research about some particular subject I was dying to know about. Pidge was willing to help me out with the research if only it was a least to cut her some slack on the training regiment I programmed for her… So.” She poked her fingers together. “I gave a good reasonable explanation to Shiro to let me come with them on this mission.”  
  
“Let me guess.” Clara said. “He gave you the father disapproving look.”  
  
“And he told you it was way too dangerous for you to come along so you could get lost or even more...hurt.” Nakia completed.  
  
“Guys! That’s so mean!” Roe looked at them with the saddest puppy eyes.  
  
“What? That’s how Shiro is.” Clara commented.  
  
“Tall, leader and...space dad if you tell me.” Nakia said. On cue, Shiro sneezed. He thought maybe space dust was in the work.  
  
“At least, I got my two best friends here.” She hooked her arms around each girl’s shoulders. “We are a team. Too bad Leila caught a cold.”  
  
“Why does it have to be us?” Clara asked, tipping on the side because Roe’s short stature.  
  
“Because our way out just in case something goes wrong.” Roe eyed Nakia. “And we have the strength of an Altean to destroy the danger ahead of us….also to carry the puppies if there are any.” She eyed Clara, wiggling her eyebrows.  
  
The automatic doors opened, leaving the girls pop their head out to see if the coast was clear. It was indeed silent, creepy and dark. Walking down a corridor Roe was looking at on her holographic map, she decided to open any available doors coming their way.  
  
“Isn’t it a bit too risky to open any door like that?” Nakia asked Roe while she was humming. “I mean...using me as an escape road???”  
  
Roe opened the third door. There wasn’t still no sign of the treasure she was seeking for. Clara stopped her from moving. “Listen here, Shiro told us to not come for a reason and you are getting us in danger for a stupid reason you have. If dogs do exists in space, fine! Be happy, but don’t go the edge of the universe to get one.”  
  
Roe’s shoulders slumped suddenly. “Maybe if we went on separate ways, we could cover more ground-”  
  
“NO WAY” The two girls flatly refused with their arms raised up as a cross.  
  
Making sure they wouldn’t hear whining and cries, they both closed the comms and their visor to make them sound proof. They looked at her standing, arms crossed with a scowl on her face. They knew she wouldn’t budge from the spot. Nakia and Clara looked at each other and frowned at their friend’s childish antics. A few steps besides Roe, each of their hands squeezed her little shoulders. The brunette tensed under their grip.  
  
“You win.” Clara said, Roe was about to jump of joy but got interrupted by Clara’s finger on her lips. “Don’t. You are not going alone. I’m coming with you.”  
  
“You guys can go to the East corridor. I will go one last big check up on this level of the prison. If we get what she really think exists, we are out of here.” Nakia said. They all agreed.  
  
“Your convincing needs better work.” Clara pushed Roe in the right direction.  
  
“I am not believable enough?” Roe asked.  
  
“Depends.”  
  
“What do you...mean!?”  
  
“Just go.” Clara pushed her a little. “If Shiro knows we are here, he will have our heads. Literally.” Roe gulped at the thought. Speaking too soon, they noticed the gravity system was reactivated out of the blue.  
  
Nakia had gone the other way. She pushed against the wall, hiding if necessary from the bots. She passed the next open area only to find herself alone in the dark corridor. She pressed a code on her gauntlet to let the flashlight appear and light her way. Looking the opposite side, she felt a shadow looming over her. She turned her head slowly with a small idea of what it could be - she was so wrong.  
  
Dead wrong.  
  
“HOLY QUIZNAK THE FUCK IS THAT!?” Nakia yelled in her comm. The two brunettes stopped at a spot they were not at.  
  
“Whoa there! What’s going on?” Clara asked through her helmet. “Wait...what?!”  
  
“What’s wrong?” Roe asked while opening another door in the corridor. She turned her head towards Clara who was trying to not laugh it off. She had finally opened the door she deserved. Clara turned her head to see Roe with three dogs in her hands, floating around happily.  
  
“You made a discovery huh?” Clara replied to Nakia. “So did we.”  
  
A small buzzing finally made it through. They were able to hear the paladins conversations. They needed to act fast. Nakia whistled to gain the massive creature attention - they followed without hesitation.  
  
“Say buddy, do you wanna know a faster way to get to the launching port?” Nakia asked.  
  
“YUP.” Nakia sweatdropped at the reply.  
  
“Alright, are you following me?” She asked again.  
  
“YUP.”  
  
Nakia stopped at a wall to open two distinctive portals - one for her and the beast and the other, for Clara, Roe and their discovery. Meeting up in the hangar, they quickly looked at each other.  
  
“What is that?!” Clara declared.  
  
“Isn’t that what Roe was looking for?” Nakia pointed out.  
  
“More...like this.” Clara pointed the pack stuffed in a bag. Two of the puppies had their heads out while the third had his butt sticking out of the bag. Roe looked at the big guy and awed at the sight. Clara and Nakia cringed.  
  
The Yupper turned around to leave. It didn’t seem to mind their presence until he felt the presence of others coming. Nakia pushed the girls inside Blue quickly. Dropping on their ass at the back of the lion, they heard the machinery start and fly off. On their way back to the castle, they heard Shiro argue with somebody.  
  
“You didn’t say we’d be traveling by teledav.” The rescapee Slav spoke through the comms. The girls shuttered at his voice. They didn’t even knew what they looked like yet.  
  
“What’s the problem? We are traveling by teledav.So just count your hair follicles or fluff a pillow or whatever you need to do to make sure we survive the wormhole trip in this reality!”  
  
“I was about to say the teledav is a real efficient way of travel is all...and also how much realities diverse in this kind of this. Maybe somebody of your crew can do that right?”  
  
Roe and Clara looked at Nakia. She felt observed. “Don’t even say a word.” She warned.  
  
  
  
Nakia dragged her feet in her own room and dropped herself on the bunk bed. It had been a challenge to hide the little doggies from the camera on the ship. She had to use the secret passage ways she had discovered lately. She was out of energy, any cells of her brain were fried with all the stress and tension they had been through.  
  
She didn’t forget the return of a robeast to life. They had to help the princess to defend the castle in order to make sure they weren’t out of power either. Leila’s cold didn’t help, the poor girl had remained in bed safely in her room.  
  
The doors opened once more letting the Cuban boy enter with happy features.  
  
“Baaabbee!” He sang. “Great work back there. Did you know what I did to the prison? Did Shiro tell you about my exploit? I shot a bull eye on the guy’s arm, breaking it into millions pieces and saved Slav!” He expressed with his arms and hands as he was reenacting the scene in space. He only got a groan as an answer. A pout replaced his smile as he walked towards her bed.  
  
He sat on the bed, petting her head. She sat up slightly. Lance pulled into a hug. Resting her head on his shoulder pad, she felt a little relieved. She inhaled his scent. It was comforting. Her eyes opened to let the silence install itself, calmly. The background shattered as her eyes popped out of their sucket. One of Roe’s puppies running down the corridor, soon after, Clara passing by.  
  
She jolted up from Lance’s arms. The Blue paladin checked the bed quickly as she gotten up. The Demelvian was standing, stretching weirdly. “Thank you for your hug Lance. Did you know your radiant smell was just enough to set me back on my feet. Gotta go!” She kissed his forehead, running to the doors. Lance smelt his armpits just in case.  
  
Running the same way she saw Clara go, Nakia turned the corner only to collide with the latter. Allura came out of Leila’s room with some medicine in her hands. A little fellah went inside the room while the doors closed up again.  
  
“Girls, you must keep it down. Leila is resting. Poor thing.” Allura scolded them. Clara was lulling her head by listening at the lecture of the princess. Looking over the woman’s shoulder, she saw the dog run down the path. The brunette looked at Nakia and mouthed ‘There it is!’.  
  
“We understand princess. We must be on our way!” They both bowed to her and hurried down the corridor. The mice perched on Allura’s shoulders tilted their heads interested by the commotion.  
  
They arrived in the assigned hallway - it was gone. Clara turned to Nakia with a death stare. “Use it!” She snapped.  
  
“Use what?!” Nakia yelped in panic when the technician commanded her suddenly.  
  
“Your eyesight thing! You can see the energy stuff right?! DO IT!” Clara motioned the eyes with her fingers and outstretched her eyes. Nakia shivered.  
  
  
  
“Anthonio! Gregory! Benjamin! I’ve got you some good food!” Roe said as she entered her room. The doors locked behind her. Putting down the food trays down in front of the yuppies, she checked around the room to search for every last of them.  
  
“Boys?” She asked her yuppies. She checked under her mattress, the blanket and pillows. She opened the drawers of the altean furniture. She even opened the wardrobe she had.   
  
“Okay. This is an emergency.” Roe panicked. “WHERE ARE THEY GONE TO!?” She squeaked. She opened the corridor door, checked out quickly. No sign of anyone outside. It was a relief yet a dangerous task to maintain. Maybe she should be asking for help. Leila was not an option - she was laying sick. She quickly moved down the hallway to find her dogs.  
  
  
  
Nakia’s eyes turned gold for a split second then back to the original brown color. She sweatdropped at the sight. “Better hurry!” She took her friend’s wrist and her pulled her along.  
  
“Where is it?!”  
  
“With the Slave guy!” Nakia yelled while running. They stopped at the room right above where Slav was standing. She opened a portal at the top of them. The yuppy was stroading around the room. It smelt the ground until they approached the octo limbed person. Clara jumped down, Nakia opened another portal to the back of Slav, while the brunette pushed the yuppy into it.  
  
“EEK!” Slav shrieked at the sudden appearance of Clara. Nakia, from above, closed discreetly the portal to make sure their guest didn’t ask any questions. The alien made a turnaround of the brunette. “Altean genes when you are 100% human? Interesting. Your arms mass is incredible. Did you ever fought any beast in this reality!” He pinched her upper arms. He received her elbow.  
  
“Alright...Your strength is the closed of the Shiro in this reality!” Slav said, patting his bruised spot. Clara blushed madly at the comment. She just walked out with him stalking her at the back. She sat quickly on a chair in the dining room but sprang up when she saw another dog running quickly outside the room. She slammed her fist on the table.. Slav tried to follow her.  
  
“Just stay here!” Clara said. “Do something according to the current reality!”  
  
Slav’s ears slumped, he sat on the ground. Nakia was taking her breath back after the sprint she made across the corridors of the castle. She could have used the portals but Laneila forbid her to after five attempts to capture the yuppy. She had managed to capture one of them. It seemed to be the one being between the naughty and calm type. “Damn dog… Don’t do this again.”  
  
Leila coughed a little .She had a dog in her arms. The girls looked at each other.  
  
“I felt a little guy push in my face.” She sneezed. “They were searching for a quiet place so he came into my room. What is it? A baby dog in space?” Leila turned to look at the real image Nakia was able to snap with the suit. “Holy quiznak the fuck is that!?”  
  
“That’s what I literally said.” Nakia commented. “Those yuppies will become...yuppers.”  
  
Leila sneezed again. The little dog started to squirm out of her grasp. “Leila!” A voice called out for her. She shoved the dog in her friend’s arms. Both puppies were wiggling in Nakia’s back. They all four froze at Keith’s voice at the end of the corridor.  
  
“What are you doing up?” He asked with an angry tone. “Go back to bed.” Without any further warning, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her into her room direction. The girl looked at them go, Leila made a loving face. She was still feverish for sure.  
  
Roe came running while calling out the names of the dogs. She was searching through the corridor, opened the next door. She turned her face to see two little boys in Nakia’s back.  
  
“FINALLY THERE YOU ARE.” Nakia turned her entire body towards Roe’s voice. She didn’t give the dogs back just yet. “Nakia? Did you take care of them?”  
  
“Leila had the calmer one in her room. Me and Claa chased this one. Speaking of which, I don’t where she is right now.” Nakia said.  
  
“Oh! The calm one is Gregory! Say hello to Aunty Nana! And the mid-calm and naughty is Benjamin. You are a good boy-” Nakia shoved the dog in her arms.  
  
“Be sure to have an eye on your things Roe. This time it was a nightmare, next time… I don’t even want to think about it.”  
  
“Don’t tell me about it.” Clara popped out of the next door. “This guy is a real imp! They literally chewed Coran’s communication system!”  
  
“Think about it - it will take more time to repair so they won’t be found.” Roe beamed. Nakia and Clara gave her a deadpan look. She walked back while Nakia nicely opened a portal for her room.  
  
“Make sure they made it safely. Please.” Nakia asked with a sweet smile that could kill.  
  
Allura set the route to Olkarion for their next step. They needed to get prepared with for their next move against Zarkon. Coran had made his way there two days ago. They have to give their best they could before they hatched their final plan.  
  
“ANTONIO WHERE DID YOU GO!?”  
  
“ROE!!!!” Clara and Nakia yelled from their rooms.  
  
Log 023- Getting together


	9. Log 023 - Getting together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being raised with Lance has its perks. But when his influence gets over Leila when it comes to pranks... this isn't good.

_Earlier in the day - Olkarion, Castle of Lions.  
  
“Good, he is about to get out of the shower soon.” Leila squeezed dry the food goo in a little face cream tube, closing the cap shut when she heard the shower water stop.  
  
She hurried outside of the room, down the hallway, behind the closest column she could find. She got her phone out to film everything. She set herself on her knees, angled the phone for the best shot and waited. Four more accomplices were squeaking in confusion on her shoulder.  
  
“I don’t know what you said but you don’t have to worry. We do a lot of these things between the two of us. It can drastically go higher in damage.” The mice squeaked in horror. “Not MUCH damage, only exploding tubes, scratching powder… that kind of thing. It’s totally harmless -”   
  
A loud grunt arrived to Leila’s ears. She positioned herself again, popping by the corner of the corridor. The four mice piled up at the top of her blonde head to see what was going on.  
  
The doors of the Blue Paladin’s room opened. Wearing a towel on his head and the pyjama matching the colour of his lion, he looked left and right for the culprit. Leila clicked for the photo she was waiting for.  
  
“Wait until I catch the one who did this to me!” Lance growled heading down the corridor, obviously on the trail of the prank culprit.  
  
Leila tried to hold back her laugh. She looked at the hallway again, the coast was clear. The mice looked at her intrigued.  
  
“I’m not over yet.” The mice squeaked happily. She put her finger on her lips. “Keep it a secret for now.” They climbed on shoulders. She walked the opposite way to go to the living room to find the others._  
  
\------  
  
 **Now - Living room, Castle of Lions.**  
  
The Squad was sitting comfortably on the ground in the handmade cushions, graciously given by the Olkari for their stay on their planet. The AI of Alfor had started to include more Altean story to their training. Leila was playing with her altean tablet when he spoke of the third generation of Altean, inventor of the energy mass of Altea’s planet.  
  
“Leila, may I ask what you are doing?” Leila froze when she heard the king’s voice.  
  
“Writing down the notes with interest, sir.” Her voice broke when she tried to look convincing.  
  
“She is writing about Keith and his butt.” Clara said. Keith spat from his water pouch, squeezing it with a little too much force. Leila’s face grew red.  
  
“At least I am NOT dreaming about the star night with Shiro alone on the pavilion.” Leila replied with newly born confidence. “You are making the eyes at his chest and arms.”  
  
Clara became speechless. “I am the queen in the department of “I know what are the goods are bads of a love interest’” She smirked. Alfor clapped his hands to gain the girls’ attention again.  
  
“Alright you two, back to the history lesson. I wouldn’t like my daughter to see you slacking off. The best I can do for Coran while he is occupied with the preparations is this subject.” The former altean king chuckled. “Nakia, care to let me know about your notes?”  
  
Nakia simply nodded. Lance walked in the living room in his pyjama robes, his face was disgusting. His girlfriend hid her eyes from the sight. Lance was still looking around the room.  
  
“Is one of you the culprit for this abomination?” Lance asked. He pointed his finger on his face. The green gooey texture was dripping on every edge of his skin. “I know someone did it.”  
  
Nakia opened her fingers to meet the angry eyes of her boyfriend on her form. She hid again. Clara looked at him unimpressed. Roe was more speechless than impressed. Leila didn’t look so much affected either.  
  
“You should maybe wash it off?” Roe proposed.  
  
“This is Hunk’s food goo!” Lance exclaimed. “Who would be heartless enough to replace my lotion with this?” His fingers pointed his face.  
  
“We are sorry Lance, we can’t help you right now with this.” Clara waved him off. “We have our altean history class right now.”  
  
“My problem is way more important than this crap!”  
  
Alfor’s cleared his throat when he looked at the Cuban. Lance looked at the former king with a surprised look. He groaned, left the living room while mumbling under his breath. The paladins’ voices were heard in the corridor by their own surprise. The history resumed for half an hour.  
  
Leila saw the girls leaving the room chatting between themselves. The mice squeaked in Leila’s ears to remind their presence on her shoulders. She got up thinking about where to head next. She found an idea, quickly heading towards the kitchen. She remembered the same morning she had taken the food goo for the prank, Hunk would be trying new recipes later in the day. She popped her head by the kitchen. Nakia was sitting on the stool, Pidge was on the counter and Hunk was already mixing the recipe he wanted to try badly.  
  
“Did you see Lance’s face earlier?” Pidge asked Nakia.  
  
“Yeah, I feel sad for him. I didn’t help him...catch the culprit.” Nakia replied. She looked a bit down knowing Lance was probably thinking she was not on his side. “I wish I knew before.”  
  
“Nakia, you are too good for Lance.” Hunk said pointing the altean mixing tool on her. “You two only started dating till recently. We are happy for you guys but give him his chance to show off. He has that side you don’t know of yet.” The yellow paladin looked back at his bowl in his arm.  
  
Leila retracted her head from the threshold. She rubbed her hands together with a smile. The three individuals were busy to look at the recipe. She took the opportunity to crawl towards behind the counter. The mice left her shoulders awaiting her orders. She mouthed a simple ‘distraction’ while she would be playing with the kitchen code.  
  
“Oh, look!” Hunk said with a happy smile. “They came to help us!” The mice sat on the counter looking at the bowl in his hands. “Are you interested to taste this?” He gave them a finger dip towards them.  
  
The yellow mouse sniffed the substance. Their eyes turned into heart shapes, knowing it would be a regal if they tried it here and now. Leila quickly popped her heads two times to have a little check. The distraction was set. She opened the system, using her finger nail to buzz the mechanism. She felt a little electrification but managed just fine. She shut quietly the door, crawling back to the corridor.  
  
Hunk walked towards the food goo dispenser. He took out the gun. “Let’s hope this time the virus isn’t there like the other time.” He joked. Nakia and Pidge giggled together at the joke. He pressed the hose. It didn’t come out. “Aw, come on!”  
  
“Hunk!” Nakia warned pointing at the massive bubble coming through. It literally exploded everywhere. Hunk was knocked out cold with all the food goo in his face. Pidge hid behind the counter. Nakia tried to avoid the move quickly. She got hit in the face.  
  
“Let’s get Hunk out of here!” Pidge yelled. They quickly moved to get the big guy out of the way. They came across Leila standing in the corridor.  
  
“Is everything okay guys?” She asked trying to not look guilty at all.  
  
“The food goo dispenser is acting crazy again!” Pidge panicked.  
  
“Have you tried to replace the wires? Looking at the programming system? Maybe a jam?” Leila questioned looking too chill for the situation.  
“Wait, how do you-” Pidge avoided the food goo getting out of the kitchen itself. “Alright! NEVERMIND! Nakia, you are with me!?”  
  
“Betcha I am!” Nakia nodded as they dove in the room. Leila looked at them, walked by with her hands in the back, whistling a little innocent tune. “Pidge! Grab the hose!”  
  


[ ](https://sta.sh/01hb23aoi1wt)

  
  
“Are you crazy?! I’m not gonna do a rodeo on that thing?!” Pidge replied.  
  
“WATCH OUT!” An explosion occurred in the room leaving it in a total mess.  
  
“KYAH!” The two girls yelped.  
  
A few splatters of the foo goo painted the hallway.  
  
\------  
  
Leila closed the door of the balcony. The room was located above the training deck. She remembered the first moment when Coran taught them about the communication system of the castle. She inspected innocently the command platform. The mice quickly slid down her two arms. They sat on the top and looked down. Leila pushed herself up. She looked down with curiosity. Her face changed from curious to a drooling looking sight.  
  
“My, oh, my. What do we have here?” She said with her eyes full of love.  
  
“Training sequence level 4!” The Red paladin’s voice rang in the training deck. He had just finished with the third level on his own. He needed a little more to finish the score he had set for the next training.  
  
Three training altean sentries landed on the ground. They didn’t take a second launching at him instantly. His bayard was summoned at the right moment to block off the first set of attacks. The second sentry approached dangerously with its staff, trying to trip off the paladin. He managed to do a dodge roll on the side to avoid the staff slamming the ground. The third bot was as fast as the others. They all stopped suddenly. The light of their eyes was not there anymore.  
  
“What the-” Keith started. Leila noticed the problem when she saw his sweaty body looking at the bots up close. She leaned in more. Her hand pressed several mechanical buttons. She glanced down. The balcony screen displayed a warning message above her head.  
  
“Alert. Alert. You have initiated the highest level of training.” The robotic level announced both in the training deck and balcony rooms.  
  
“Oh quiznak!” Leila gasped as she quickly tried to prevent the training sequence to get started.  
  
The eyes of the bot had lit up once more. Keith was surprised as he got smacked across the room literally in the wall. He rolled down across the floor. He tried to take his breath back. He quickly dodged roll the next attack which the staff got stuck in the floor.  
  
“Did it take it for a javelin or what?!” Keith coughed. His bayard quickly disappears to make room for him to move faster. The three bots were running after him. “I...can’t!” He quickly avoided the next sentry from grabbing his arm.  
  
“Come on!” Leila quickly typed in a sequence she had learned from Pidge. “Come on!” She smashed her two fists on the keyboard. The screen bugged a bit only to let the level decreased to six.  
  
The sentries were getting slower to process the new command rules. Keith took the opportunity to take two of them down as quickly as possible. He looked up at the control room on the balcony and saw a shadow wiggling inside.  
  
“LANCE I SWEAR IF IT IS YOU, YOU ARE SO DEAD MAN!” Keith yelled upward. Leila flinched at the tone and quickly shut down the training sequence in time.  
  
The red paladin turned to see an altean broadsword at one inch close of his head. “Holy sh-”  
  
Leila paced out of the room quicker than she intended. She popped her head slowly from the next corner of the corridor. She looked on the opposite way where Roe was standing.  
  
“Hey Leila.”  
  
Leila yelped. Roe tilted her head on the side, innocently. “Is everything okay?”  
  
“Yeah! Everything is okay! You just gave me a fright. I thought you were Keith.”  
  
“Why would I be Keith?” Roe asked, oblivious.  
  
“I may have done a little mistake and he could have my head.” Leila said trying to wave it off.  
  
“Oh come on! Keith wouldn’t have your head. Your head is your shoulders.” Roe said with a small cute laugh.  
  
‘That girl didn’t get the reference I just made...did she?’ Leila thought.  
  
“Anyways…” Roe cleared her throat to let the tension on Leila’s shoulders go off. She pats them. “Can you give a hand with special training I’ve been working on? You wouldn’t mind, would you?”  
  
Leila tensed at the demand. “S-sure why not.”  
  
“Splendid!” Roe smiled joining her hands together. “Let’s go then.”  
Arriving by the training deck door, Coran and Keith were talking together. Roe approached Coran which he was surprised to her question.  
  
“I’m sorry Monroe. The training deck is off bound for the next hours. It seems someone had played with the command system while Keith was training. The sentries are, let’s say, not there.”  
  
“Oh no! That’s a shame!” Leila said with a nervous smile. “Here I thought Roe’s training would have been a good excuse to run away from my tech duties.” She dramatized.  
  
Keith had his towel around his neck. He checked her suspiciously.  
  
“Leila wouldn’t be smart enough to outplay me like this. I’m sure it’s still Lance.” Keith commented bluntly. An arrow of shame passed through Leila’s heart. This hurt a little.  
  
“I’m sorry Keith for what happened. I will check the video feed and we will know who is the true culprit. It’s the third event today going. Lance’s face problem. Pidge and Nakia’s cooking spree. Now, you with your training incident.” Coran said as he locked the training deck with a special code.  
  
He played with his mustache for a good minute before walking off.  
  
“Yeah, that is indeed strange. I don’t remember coming across any problem similar to these yet. Did you, Leila? Leila?” Roe turned to see no one but herself and Keith in the corridor.  
  
“I think she went to the archives.” Keith pointed his head in the direction the blonde took off. Leila was in the next hallway against the wall. Her heart was pumping. She sighed taking her breath back.  
  
“Alright, Leila. You had some mishaps with the jokes. It can happen. Let’s stop for now...maybe…” Leila spoke to herself as she passed by a room where Shiro and Clara were talking alone. She quickly hid at the entrance. Her head slowly showing out.  
  
\------  
  
Sitting on two chairs they had borrowed from the dining hall, Shiro and Clara looked at the space scenery defiling. They had kept a long comfortable silence. Sitting between them, was a small floating table with some alien food and two cup of space coffee.  
  
“It’s weird how much we have come through already.” Clara commented. “I know I am repeating myself over and over, but I am glad I was rescued by you and Pidge. I’m glad we made it.”  
  
“I’m glad you are okay and that’s okay to tell again what’s on your heart. You don’t have to let it down and bottle up everything. We all have a breaking point.” Shiro replied.  
  
“That’s the kind of conversation you have with Keith?” Clara joked.  
  
“I could say yes. I did have some conversations like that with Keith when he felt down.” He smiled genuinely to the brunette. “It doesn’t apply only to you and Keith but also everyone aboard the Castle of Lions.”  
  
“Yeah...sure.” Clara said while sitting back in the chair.  
  
“I don’t mean it in a bad way.” Shiro started. “We all need our own support. We are here for each other.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “Once everything is over, I want to go back on Earth with you.”  
  


[ ](https://sta.sh/021fcmnfa7uf)

  
  
“Shiro.” Clara looked at the male next to her, while their chair was finally turned to face each other. “I believe your words but do you really mean them.”  
  
“As much as I wanted to admit ever since before the Kerberos mission, I’m not going back on my word this time.” Shiro replied with the softest smile on his features. “It will be the best decision I would have made.”  
  
The lights deemed a little when he spoke. It quickly caught the two young adults’ attention when they looked up at the ceiling. Clara frowned slightly. Shiro brought her attention back to him.  
  
“Don’t worry about the lights. It’s maybe the castle’s generator.” He said. It suddenly started to flash like a storm.  
  
“Maybe Sendak’s virus is still here?” Clara questioned.  
  
“I don’t think so.” Shiro said starting to get a bit suspicious of the system itself now. “I will go and see what’s the problem.” He said.  
The room suddenly felt all dark. A yelp, a stumble and a crash could be heard. The two cups and food felt on the ground. Shiro and Clara apologized to each other. The light came back after a short while. Shiro saw their position. Clara quickly got up from the compromising position they had been into. They looked at each other with a soft blush on their cheeks.  
  
“Hehehe…” They looked at the door.  
  
“I know that voice…” Clara narrowed her eyes. She walked quickly to the door, which opened suddenly. “Hello, LEILA.”  
  
Leila froze when she saw the brunette deadly smile. “H-hey...Clara.” She closed down the little screen from her wrist band. “Lovely day right?” She smiled awkwardly.  
  
“Lovely indeed.” Clara pulled her up. “What’s the get up?” She crossed her arms.  
  
“Clara? Oh, Leila.” Shiro suddenly linked the dots. “Were you the one doing this?”  
  
“Okay! I confess! Yes, I did it.” Leila pouted mirroring the same pose as Clara.  
  
“And?” His spaced tone came in.  
  
“I was just observing you two having a good time.”  
  
“Hm?” He pressed on.  
  
“I just wanted to do an innocent joke.”  
  
“Making us almost hit ourselves.” Clara cut Shiro before he could even speak. “I hope this is the only thing you’ve done. Geez.”  
  
Coran arrived quickly when he noticed the lighting problem from the bridge’s screens. He stopped in front of the three humans, taking his breath back.  
  
“I don’t know what is with the castle today… Lance’s face, Keith’s training, Nakia and Pidge… now you two? What the quiznak is going on?!” The altean exclaimed.  
  
“Wait, this isn’t the only problem you had today?” Shiro asked. His eyes landed on Leila. “Young lady, you have some explaining to do. Coran, call everyone in the living room.”  
  
Leila’s face colour drained suddenly. She was in trouble. Deep trouble.  
  
\-------  
  
Sitting tied up on the chair, Leila was wiggling to get off. Clara and Lance had teamed up for the first actual time to get her sitting way. Leila didn’t stop apologizing every time she had been fed a portion of the Paladin’s feast cooked none than other by Coran. Lance was the one feeding her obviously since he was the one who was the first victim of Leila’s pranks.  
  
“Open your mouth Leila. The little train will eventually crash into your mouth.” Lance cooed in the most childish way possible. His smile was something somebody would remember over their death bed for sure.  
  
The blonde kept shaking her head left and right to avoid the spork full of alien food for good. Everyone was sitting on the bench while looking at the two playings around. Keith had a headache from the commotion, he groaned. Shiro had stepped up to stop Lance from continuing the treatment.  
  
“Lance.” Shiro pulled the Cuban back by the shoulder. “I think she gets it now.”  
  
“There’s the whole food here!” He showed with his hand.  
  
“I’m sure your cow can eat the rest.” Shiro smiled.  
  
“Coooommmee on Shiro.” Clara said with her hands in the air. “She could manage a little more for what she has done.” The brunette said with her two fingers showing the space between them. Shiro shook his head. Clara pouted instantly.  
  
“I believe this is the kind of punishment Earthlings do to interrogate your enemies?” Allura asked as she stepped in. “I’m sorry to interrupt. I need everyone on the bridge.”  
  
Coran was next to her. The green, red and yellow paladins were already heading out. Lance dropped the spork down on the plate.  
  
“Muh…! That suckkkss!” Nakia started to scratch the back of his head. “Okay...that totally don’t suck on that part.” He smiled like an idiot.  
  
\-------  
  
“The problems are solved.” Coran said with a smile and took place once more next to the Altean princess. “Paladins, girls.” He said gaining their attention.  
  
“Starting off, Isias has left once more to the Blade of Marmora to let know the other members of our next progress to take down Zarkon. In the meantime, we know fully well some problems may occur during the next phase. I want everyone on board to be open with your ideas and let speak your mind.” Allura said with a serious tone. “Also, we may gain a little more outside support.”  
  
“Outside support?”  
  
“Princess, if I may?” Kolivan approached the bridge, passing the door. It was the very first time they met Kolivan physically. They looked at him like he was a giant. “We have identified another problem that may cause a lot of problems during our operation. I believe Isias has already mentioned to you or you have met him already.” He displayed an image of Wieder and a few other members.  
  
“Wieder.” Nakia said clenching her fists. Lance put his gloved hand on one of them to suit her a bit.  
  
“Yes. That’s him. Coming from our intel inside Zarkon’s ship, he is in the highest rank like Sendak was. Known for his strength and his brain, he is quite accomplished for an individual coming from your reality. The problem is not only him but also his crew.” He displayed another image. “His members aside of Drokot, killed by Lance and Rabbi knocked down by Monroe and Nakia, are still running around.”  
  
Kolivan went with his own thoughts on how they will be taking down Zarkon during their next attack. The Squad stood silently while the paladins also held an ear out for his proposition.  
  
“Next up, when the reinforcement arrives, we will put the girls to their best. They won’t be left aside because they will be helping you defend the castle of lions. No matter what.” The BOM leader spoke with a serious tone. Looking at them, he knew from Isias’s words, the girls had as much potential as the paladins of Voltron.  
  
Log 024 - Heritage


	10. Log 024 - Heritage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why did he come on the side of Voltron's reality? Why is he working with Lotor in the first place? What's his purpose...?

Videos feed ran on the screen of the bridge. The last attack of the headquarters sent many galran commanders into security maintenance. Wieder had closed his eyes for a minute to reminisce about the meeting he had with the other higher-ups previously in the day. Zarkon had summoned commanders close to the headquarters to come in for a briefing.

Commanders after another passed before Zarkon. The emperor had let them know about their mistakes on the previous attack that occurred. It was a hard loss for the space fighters, and Zarkon couldn’t let go of Voltron’s ability to flee. Someone from the inside must have worked around the system and let them go on purpose.

“Wieder.” Zarkon’s voice spoke with a venomous tone. The vampire knelt in front of the galra emperor to show his proper respect -- something he could care less from now on. “You were able to get Voltron’s paladins at the appropriate time when their defence was wide open. How do you explain they escaped only a few hours you had put the virus in their system?”

“You asked me to retreat after my failure, sir.” The red-headed responded. “It seems one of the crew members was able to avoid the virus inside.”

Haggar opened the video feed from the castle as they spoke. Wieder had recorded everything from his ship while the panic had been going from the inside. “This young human may be the problem.” The witch commented. “You fought them too when they came to claim the altean princess back, did you not?”

Zarkon lifted his hand to shut Haggar’s questioning. “Human or not, this crew is posing a problem. The last mission was a problem since another of your generals had collapsed fighting them and a group of rebels.” Wieder kept his calm. Another failure on his back would likely cost his life. He was known to be immortal to his reality. Zarkon’s hands were enough to choke the life out of his five hundred years old body. He knelt again on the ground.

“I am truly at fault. I recognize the failure as a scar once again, my lord.” His fangs tightly clenched.

“Another failure would result in the death of your body, vampire. Remember this well.” Zarkon said. “As for now, I won’t assign you any missions for Voltron’s whereabouts. I’ve given it to someone else already. You can go now.”

“Veprit’sa!” Wieder said, turning his back to the two individuals. Little did they know, a smile grew on the blood sucker’s features, satisfied with the new orders. It would be enough time for him to continue on his plans.

Haggar looked at the retreated figure down the throne room. She looked at the emperor with the yellow eyes she had.

“My Lord, what about Wieder’s actions?” She started. “He has been aware of the war at hand, but does he remain one of the fewest able to accomplish any orders given today?”

“Unlike Lotor, he has been doing his deeds towards the Galran empire. I do not have anything to say. That is, for now. Keep an eye on him as well.” Zarkon commented. “I am not taking any chances to let another member of my army work behind my back.”

Lotor was still a fugitive by the galra empire. The Demelvian mage had given his word to keep secret the lost prince’s whereabouts. They had come to a deal for both parties to have their investigations about the researches they were doing on each other’s sides. Lotor was already a dead man on the intergalactic headboard. It would be only a short moment before he got caught.

“Wieder is another pawn in my game, Haggar. It wouldn’t change anything in the world. I gave him his chance on the moment he had proven his utility to us.” Zarkon drummed his fingers on his chair.

“I clearly remember him wanting to meet the higher-up.” She hummed.

“That remains in the past. Now, we have something else to attend. Make sure to question every crew member of the ship. I want a full report on the culprit.” Zarkon finally said with a dark tone. “Get him killed immediately.”

“Yes, my Lord.” Haggar left the throne room. She approached her druid group. “Time to investigate.” They nodded and disappeared.

\---

Wieder opened his eyes again. He must have slept a few minutes before that recall. He began to doubt some of his plans after he left Zarkon’s vessel confidently. Haggar had finally seen a portion of Nakia could do from inside the Castle of Lions. He wondered if his previous test subject had begun to show much more potential. The raid of his laboratories in Demelvia cost a loss of members and prisoners.

Getting through a wormhole cost a portion of his immortality as a whole. It wouldn’t take long before he starts to feel his need for blood resurging. He had taken most of his stock with him. A decade passed, really quickly putting him only at one-quarter of his remaining samples. Testing on aliens wasn’t enough to get his thirst handled. He needed the real subject. He had been lucky to meet Lotor when he started to gather the Altean colony. He had given his time and knowledge of how to create the right formula and technics. Lotor had given a good portion of his understanding of the alien genre. It only fed the vampire’s desire to know more.

It had to start from somewhere.—something small to grow in further implantation.

FLASHBACK

Alternate reality

Ten years before his current position as a commander, Wieder had suffered a significant loss in Demelvia. Two well-known guilds from his homeland have raided his laboratories to free the children and the remaining test subjects. It merely took one month or two to gather what he could find from his previous location. He had decided to move to another place. He planned to find a way out. He came across a descendant of his lost family, which was about to depart on a special mission.

He made sure to be a part of this woman’s escape while she would have the back turned. He learned from his intern in the castle of Senegha about the device connecting the Castle of Lions. It was the secret he wanted to get his hand on as soon as he could.

They landed somewhere they didn’t know. The galran stationed there for a long time captured the group without hesitation. Two young male adults and one woman were first taken away for interrogation. Wieder and Drokot remained into their confinement cells until it was their turn.

The time of the interrogation came in front of the galra emperor. Handcuffed, he looked grimly at the emperor with silence.

“Your Highness.” The captain of the ship spoke. The title was in Wieder’s mind. “A group of stranded individuals landed where we were camping. They seem not to be from any records of our register around the galaxy. They may be outsiders.”

“Very well. What is your business in this universe? What are you doing here? What is your real purpose to step in my empire?” Zarkon gave three precise questions to the vampire.

“I seek knowledge beyond this reality,” Wieder replied with a stern tone. Zarkon’s eyes widen with interest. “I came from a distant land where my belonging got stolen. I am searching for a better purpose to serve anybody almighty as you - my Lord.”

Zarkon drummed his fingers on his chair, his cheek resting on his fist. “Quite a tongue, you have for a miserable looking individual. You must know much about royalty.”

“I  did ,” Wieder replied.

“You are the first type of living being asking for knowledge instead of freedom. Is it what you really seek, or perhaps, are you lying to be saved from any further interrogation?”

“Neither”. Wieder replied. Zarkon hummed.

“Tell me, boy.” Zarkon trailed off. “Where are you from?”

“... A place where the link of simple magic provides endless energy.” Wieder smirked.

“Quintessence, you mean?” Zarkon corrected with irritation.

“You can call it: Ethernanos.” The word triggered the emperor suddenly.

“Put him back in his cell,” Zarkon ordered. A soldier tackled Wieder to the ground. “His interrogation isn’t over.” Wieder looked at the screen with a bruised cheek. “Bring him and his group to the headquarters.” The display closed down. “I will personally take care of this buffoon talking about the exact place my long lost friend spoke of once. If he doesn’t want to cooperate, I will make sure Haggar extracts everything he knows.”

Wieder’s first phase of his plan finally initiated.

The druids proceeded to the information extraction from Wieder’s group. Rabi, a young anthropomorphic kangaroo woman, succeeded in the general tests and sent to the arena along with Drokot. They were both frail looking to Zarkon’s eyes. They managed to pass the tag team battles with ease. Drokot stole one of their adversaries’ weapons, putting an end to them, splattering his head off.

Ghanor and Matsuhiro were put in the labour camp on another planet nearby the headquarters of Zarkon. Their tenacity made the soldiers afraid of their behaviour. Matsuhiro’s behaviour towards the other prisoners made their blood freeze on the spot. They had to keep locked away for a short amount of time. Ghanor had been only following the plan Wieder had discussed with them in their cells previously. Either they were getting killed by Zarkon’s hand, or they were cooperating for his vision.

Wieder supported the torture directed personally by Haggar. Zarkon had asked a last-minute intervention after the behaviour of Matsuhiro on the labour camp. Haggar found it intriguing how much pain the vampire was able to endure so far. She took a blood sample to analyze.

“My Lord.” She announced herself in the throne room.

The emperor was sitting in his chair, his hand drumming on the armrest, annoyed by the sudden interruption. He dismissed his screen off his face.

“What is it, Haggar?” Zarkon asked.

“Some news about the newly captured prisoners from a month ago, sir.” The report appeared in front of the galra emperor. “It seems the man called Wieder has been telling the truth about that thing he called ‘Ethernanos.’ The level of concentration is close to the quintessence we are extracting from every planet we visit regularly. The highest spec of these results, the blood cells regenerate quicker than I ever saw.”

“What species is he?” Zarkon asked with a slight peak of interest.

“He didn’t answer this but judging of his memory. He transformed into a creature called a ‘Vampire.’” Haggar spoke. “A creature seemingly drinking only of blood and also, high probability of immortality.” Zarkon’s head looked at the witch, standing a few feet away from him.

“Bring him back to talk. Gather his group and start their training inside the facility. You will be training him with the druids. He will learn how much this magic can be far different from his perception.”

Two demelvian years had already passed, Wieder succeeded in getting a low rank amongst the soldiers. Fights in the arena were regular. Testing him for his strength, he gained the title of Crimson Strangler. That caught the eye of one alien individual standing outside the galra territory. That stranger took a moment to gather any information available where he could meet Wieder alone. Firstly, he would be sending a small gift of introduction.

Meeting Lotor

Wieder, mystified by the gift, gave it to Drokot. Coming from a stranger, the vampire only thought to give it to his subordinate. He kept track of the message written in code and went after the individual. Wieder walked inside a galra inn on a planet they had been exploiting for a long time. The inn was empty, with no soldiers around where they were supposed to be.

“Welcome.” A voice greeted him. “I knew you would have come finding me after the little gift I sent you. I am surprised it came in safely, that is.”

“I guess I should be thanking you?” Wieder questioned, looking at the stranger stepping out of the shadows, his silver hair floating behind, and bouncing at every step before coming to a halt.

“Hospitality isn’t a thing among galra as I know.” He spoke with a heavy English accent. “I am also surprised my father let a stranger join the higher rank outside of the galra species. I am intrigued by where you are coming from; Wieder.”

“How do you know about me?” Wieder spoke with a warning tone.

“Simply enough. I have acquaintances inside the galra empire. Even if my father banished me, that doesn’t mean I can have my share of information too.” The alien spoke, stopping a few feet away from the vampire.

“Wouldn’t it be equal to know your name as well?” Wieder asked, his gaze remaining on the purple-skinned male standing.

“I suppose it would be equal.” He spoke with a lower tone. “My name is… Lotor.”

“I’ve heard your name many times.” Wieder scoffed, crossing his arms against his chest. “You are the Emperor’s son, right? All galra are after you.”

“Thank you for the reminder it was unnecessary,” Lotor replied with the same amount of sarcasm of the Demelvian mage. “I have a proposition for you.”

“You are speaking to a commander for the Empire of the Galra. You want to make a proposition?” Wieder asked with a mocking tone. “This must be a farce.”

“Aren’t you seeking knowledge about this reality?” Wieder’s fingers twitched suddenly, showing a slight interest. “I can give you what you seek for this universe to become yours, but of course, in return, I will be asking your help with my most recent project.”

“Do tell me more.” The vampire advised.

“Very well.” Lotor smiled with his fang popping out of his lips.

Altean Colony

Sitting aboard the ship checking out for Alteans in line for the Second Colony - which was the most well-built lie coming from Lotor, Wieder read the Programmation. “Is this the project you wanted to progress further?” Wieder asked, looking outside.

Alteans were gathering in masses around the ship, making lines to get inside. Zarkon had given all the information about the Altean on his first briefing as a soldier. Altean species were supposed to be dead from the universe. Zarkon had put an end to their king and their planet the very same day he didn’t want to let the emperor take Voltron.

He looked at the map Lotor had given him for future purposes. Coding wasn’t Wieder’s forte; he was still getting used to the technology of his reality. Unlike the use of magic stones called lacrima back home, they were more versatile. He looked at Lotor standing by the window, his hands in his back. The altean-galra offspring had been only starting this project out of pure interest. He wanted to know more about his lineage, his deceased mother’s works.

“Are there any proficient ways to gather any more energy out of a body?” Lotor asked, turning his attention to Wieder. “You’ve had a laboratory, right? Do you know any extraction process faster ?”

“If it is about energy extraction, I can show you. In exchange, let me use your facility to work on my projects - getting more efficient technology for my team.”

“Extraction of quintessence requires a piece of vast possible knowledge. How would you be so sure?”

“Scientist’s secret.” He put his finger on his lips. “Are you on term or not?” He extended his hand towards the alien. “It’s something you might be considering I have a team made of the finest magic energy from my reality. Maybe I could lend a piece or two of my homeland.”

“Agreed,” Lotor concluded. His blue eyes looked at the vampire’s neck.

Acknowledgment

It took a few months to let the project progress to Lotor’s expectations. He had given a free ticket to Wieder to his hidden facilities across the galaxy for his biding. Lotor felt a lack of trust still with the latter. The vampire was amongst his father’s highest ranks; he could tell where he is hiding at any tick of the day.

Yet again, the vampire was from an alternate reality - proving the life was existing elsewhere than this universe. Wieder trespassed the law of time and space to end up on their side. All in this situation with a small group of his own. There were still some questions the galra prince wanted to ask, but he had strict rules to avoid dwelling in Wieder’s plans.

He took away innocent aliens’’ bodies to test his experiments and threw them like it was a poor marionette on the side.

Lotor had agreed fundamentally to remain secretive of their interaction. Any moment they spoke, meet or even interacted needed to be erased of their ship’s black box. Lotor expressed his gratitude with handshake many times. Only one time to draw his sword when the galra sentries pulled out their guns.

“That is enough.” Lotor’s tone rang in the room. “Hand over the information you have collected so far, Wieder.” He pointed the blade at the vampire, standing less than half a meter away from him.

“Go ahead. Cut my head off.” Wieder dared. “One step and your death will be signed with lasers.” He lifted a hand, asking the sentries to withdraw their guns for a second. Lotor let his guard down, allowing the vampire to have his hand around his neck. Lotor gasped suddenly for air, wheezing, coughing. Wieder didn’t end up there. He quickly let go to dislocate the two shoulders from their joints. Keeping the fugitive close to his body, Wieder approached the lobe of Lotor’s ear in a predatory manner.

“I could simply deliver you to the emperor if I wanted to or either feast of your blood.” He chuckled. Lotor’s heart was pumping so fast from all the sudden adrenaline, which made his strength coming back.

He lifted his assailant above his shoulder by making a frontal summersault. He popped his arms back, grabbing the sword on the ground to pursed it through the individual’s chest. The blood splattered on the soil, a few droplets from his mouth. His stand was still slouched upfront. He smiled, chuckled, giving the prince’s a sinister glare. Lotor withdrew his sword.

“My father was right. I must agree with him on this term. You are immortal.” Lotor said while cleaning the sword away with a swift swing. “Immortality and quintessence are not that far in comparison. Each of them has its perks and defaults.”

“One person other than you was able to outstand me back then,” Wieder said while wiping his mouth and asking a sentry a new chest plate. Lotor turned towards the opponent, intrigued.

“Let me guess..” Lotor started.

“It wasn’t an adult.” Wieder cut him off. “It was a child. A human child.” He indicated. “One of the few that managed to escape by doing the dumbest human trick ever known,” Wieder said while changed his chest plate.

Lotor looked at the vampire with an odd expression. “If you even come across this human, tell yourself this. Human or not, she will get you. I feel she might be a part of something bigger than my experiment on her myself.”

The alien stood there, dumbfounded. Wieder sat on the nearby rock, his cheek pressed against his fist. “Above all, what did you want to discuss?”

Quintessence. Lifeforce.

Flash back end

Wieder had never been the type to sleep like a vampire. He wondered if the trespassing of space and time was the cause of this sudden envy of sleep. The mage noticed his map was where they were supposed to be. He called two of his men on the deck.

Ghanor and Matsuhiro came in shortly after their call. “You will be sent on this planet to gather the stone minerals.” He looked at the screen. “The Squad of Voltron had already been spotted there. I want you to terminate them and gather the materials.”

“Yes, sir.” The boys said before departing.

Log 025: Morality of the past.


	11. Log 025: Morality of the past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kolivan sends the squad on a planet where stones similar to scultrits can be mined. They ran into Wieder's duo - Ghanor and Matsuhiro.

“This is not what I expected,” Roe commented, sitting next to the pilot assigned for the task. She looked at the board, pressed a few buttons. The pilot’s -- Clara stopped her hand. 

“If we want to get out of here alive, please, do not press anything else,” Clara said with a flat tone. Her expression was already telling she wasn’t in the mood to deal with any more damage. All thanks to Coran’s wise advice to take this shuttle pod to their design location. Clara’s version of his information was more like ‘Take this ten thousand-years old shuttle pod never used ever since we got back and stay stuck on the planet’ kind of reasoning. 

“What quiznaking heck did we get into?” Clara growled her two hands on the helm. She did what she learned at the Galaxy Garrison: check the engine, make a full turn of the ship if anything was wrong, the fuel was clean and all the gears into place. What happened? The driver died at the moment they landed on the planet. 

“Clara, chill.” The brunette looked at the blonde, stepping next to her. “At least, we got the emergency kit Allura left us just in case of this.” 

“Oh, look at this! There are some snacks, water canisters and especially the most favourite of all - food goo.” Roe showed her arms packed with the survival kit. Smiling like a kid, she even popped a little snack into her mouth. 

“Aren’t suppose to keep these just in case?” Nakia spoke, taking the snacks off Roe’s hand. She earned the puppy eyes from the shorter woman. “Not this time, lady.” She flicked her forehead. 

“Is there enough energy to protect the pod?” Clara asked, checking the board one last time. 

“The cloaking device is outside the pod. We can remotely put the mechanism on.” Leila said, showing the thing at the front of the little ship. Clara sighed in defeat. 

The girls got off activating the mechanism instantly and pressed their wristband to display the planet’s geographic map given by Coran on their previous meeting. 

A few days before they headed out for the mission, Kolivan - the Blade of Marmora leader - asked to meet the Squad personally with Coran. It surprised the princess and the paladins at first, but they let them do. 

“We already set a planned course implying Voltron on the largest scale of danger as of late. Coran has already started to build the biggest portion of the plan.” Kolivan displayed the plan, the teammates and the device Coran was working.

“What is our part of the play?” Roe asked, genuinely confused. “We get it. We are part of the team. We are still only giving our hand to Coran when he needs us. We don’t do much with the whole ‘Destroy Zarkon for good’ plan.” 

“The stones needed for the teledav Coran is building isn’t enough to give the total power energy we need. This mission is where you come in. Keith and Hunk have already left for another place to get the scultrit made for the power tunnel.” 

The Squad had a vague but fresh memory of the place. They almost got toasted along with the paladins in there. 

“I am sending you on a planet called Lugghvaley,” Kolivan displayed the planet. “On this planet, you will find stones made of a unique galactic mineral closest to the scultrit’s composites.” 

Nakia was contemplating the holographic display floating in the room. Kolivan eased her worries with safety. The planet has a lot of vegetation, no living being besides the local wildlife would be there. She nodded. 

Back to the present, the Squad was sitting in a circle on the ground. Leila had a small computer, graciously made from Coran and Pidge’s collaboration, to gather the necessary pieces of information on the planet. Pidge had already given a positive scan of the earth, which helped the enthusiasm of the girls. Oxygen was present on the surface, so they wouldn’t need to wear their helmets.

“Alright, all set. Pidge’s intel is just like she confirmed with the Green Lion. From here to there is about twenty minutes walk to the cavern where the stones are supposed to be.” Leila pointed out on the little holographic map. “Kolivan also said we are supposed to be alone. Galra had practically never suspected these stones to be useful.” 

They all got up from their spot, put their things in their backpack, and dragged the altean wheelbarrow. Unknown to them, they didn’t suspect to be spied by someone far away. Looking at each of the girls, Ghanor looked at Nakia for a little second before Leila ended. As he disposed of his long views, Ghanor looked back in the clearing where his comrade, Matsuhiro, gave the orders to the sentries. The robots were taking the few indigenous aliens inside the ship. 

Ghanor whistled to Matsuhiro. The latter understood right away. He finished telling the last details to the sentries to take off towards the cruiser and come back later to pick them up. He joined Ghanor with his map, where four little red dots were spotted moving. 

“Let’s make sure they don’t take what’s supposed to be ours,” Matsuhiro commented. Ghanor nodded silently. “They are not expecting us. Especially her.” He grinned while walking on the front line.

“This is so fun!” Roe perked up, putting up her little glasses off her face. “Look at this drill, isn’t it cute?” Roe cooed at the small altean tool. 

“Work now, cooing later,” Clara said. “We have to fill these bags as fast as possible to get back to the castle.” She grunted by tying up one of the expendables bags. She tossed it with ease in the wheelbarrow. Leila was doing the same while Nakia was at the entrance extracting the bigger ones. They required a little more time to take the task done. 

“Are you okay for me to leave these here?” Leila called out to Nakia taking a breath. 

“Sure, no problem,” Nakia replied, taking a moment to look to the recent stone she had gotten out with the favourable help of Laneila’s water magic. It was harmless for the planet environment and also made sure the stone remained in one piece.

“This stone doesn’t compare the hard work of the past.” A voice startled Nakia. She felt the gun against her neck already charged and ready to fire. “Leave the bags here, and nothing will happen.” 

“For the past work, huh.” Nakia rephrased him. She quickly summoned Laneila’s ice magic to make him lose his footing, land on his ass. The gunfire shot into the cavern rumble. Nakia pointed her blade to Matsuhiro’s throat. “You leave.” She threatened. The blade’s water soon turned into ice, ready to slice him to pieces. 

“Nakia! What’s going on? I heard a gunshot and-” Leila stopped her tracks when she saw the posture her friend was. “What the-!?” She fiddle to find her guns but forgot she had let them back with Roe and Clara further in the cave. 

“Leila!” Nakia called only to dodge roll the few arrows pinning to the ground. “What-!” Ghanor landed right next to Leila, taking her as a hostage. He pointed his little handgun to her head.

“This is a little trickier than usual…” Laneila said to his master through her mind. “What will you do?” Nakia still had the sword ready. Matsuhiro pointed the gun at Nakia for safety measures.

“One step, and her brain will be blasted.” Ghanor gave the warning look at both standing next to him. 

“You two… aren’t supposed to be like that.” Nakia said, almost being distraught. “What the fuck happened?!” She yelled. “You said you would be standing behind. All in all, you just felt for his trick, and here you are! Threatening my friend’s life.” Her grip resumed when she saw the two arriving. 

“This is not what we dealt with when you were gone. True. We stood ground for a couple of days. No one came to get us.” Matsuhiro said, his voice with no remorse. “He came back to get us. Something we never thought he would do.” 

“He gave us a superior purpose.” Ghanor added. Leila wiggled, but his grip didn’T falter. 

“Serving the supreme evil is the superior purpose !?” Nakia replied with an angrier tone. 

“What about you?” Matsuhiro pointed his gun fully charged. “What is your purpose of helping Voltron in all this? You don’t even belong here.” 

“Nakia!” Clara and Roe yelled. 

“Oh, heck, you will know what my purpose is. Well, my plan is obvious.” Nakia replied again. “Wieder needs to be dead and I will make sure he doesn’t rise!” 

“Whoa, chill!” Roe stepped in quickly. “I guess you three know each other from Demelvia. I get that part. But isn’t this going a little too far? I mean, you were buddies why pulling the trigger on each other. Talking the way out wouldn’t be an option?” Ghanor and Matsuhiro exchanged gaze only to resume their hostage thing. Matsuhiro pointed his second handgun on Roe, which she surrendered on the spot. Clara lifted her hands in surrender as well. 

“See, your friends are cooperating. You should be doing the same, Nakia.” Matsuhiro chuckled. Leila pleaded Nakia with a sad expression. Nakia let go of Laneila and dropped him on the ground, her hands in the air. “Good girl.” 

Ghanor, satisfied with the view, let go of Leila by pushing her on the ground. They got their weapon down, walked to the wheelbarrow to get the bags. “CLOSE YOUR EYES.” Leila yelled at her party. 

“What the-!?” FLASH. The boys started to groan. They were taken by surprise by this flash grenade hidden in the bag carrier. They both got tackled to the ground; Clara got Leila’s attacker pinned on his stomach with his arms in the back, and Nakia straddled the blonde with an attempt to handcuff him. 

“Huh… huh…” Roe was looking at the two girls fighting down the boys. 

“ROE! MOVE YOUR ASS AND HELP ME WITH THE BAGS!” Leila called her out. 

“Coming!!” Roe quickly hurried outside the cave with the tools and the remaining bags. Ghanor was trying to fight off Clara’s altean strength. He had to admit she was dominant for a human girl. Nakia caught one of Matsuhiro’s wrist only to be scratched on the neck by his nails. She grunted in pain, losing the hold. The young vampire underling sat up, digging his fangs into Nakia’s bicep. Through the spacesuit, the blood gave it away. He unearthed more in-depth to get more blood as possible. Nakia yelled in pain, pulling him off. He looked at her with the most pained expression he could muster. 

“Nakia…” Nakia didn’t take a second to headbutt him hard. He groaned at the smack he just received falling on his back one more. 

“LANEILA!” Nakia called, the sword resonating with her lifeforce. “HARD ICE!” The sentient sword straightens into the air, dug into the ground, releasing a wave of ice, freezing Ghanor and Matsuhiro’s heels to the ground. Clara and Nakia had gotten up just in time to flee. 

Clara threw the remaining tools onboard. “Fuck! I didn’t think to be in trouble now. The machine is still down!” 

“I’m already on it!” Leila called from the back. 

“Where is she!?” Clara looked at the clearing. 

Nakia had her leg caught Matsuhiro trying to keep her back. She kicked his hand off to sprint. The spell came loose, leaving the boys enough maneuver to run after them. He jumped to get on her back. His face never saw coming to a flying kick from Roe’s shoe. He rolled onto the ground. 

“You are not a buddy of Nakia so, better be off!” Roe yelled with an angry tone. She saw him pulling his gun towards them. “You better not.” She warned. Matsuhiro’s eyes grew wider when he saw something everyone did notice. A spiritual lion was unseen like the other roaring in synch with Roe’s threat.

“Come on!” Roe urged the mage inside the ship. 

“AND DONE!” Leila chirped. “Clara!” 

“Here we go!” Clara pressed the three buttons for the take-off. “Allura, we are getting out sooner than expected. We got ambushed.” 

“What?” Allura said on the screen. “Alright, I’m opening a wormhole right away. Meeting you aboard.” They were able to escape unscathed back on Olkarion.

  
  
  
  


Even if they returned empty-handed, Ghanor and Matsuhiro remained silent back. Leila’s act had mystified the orc with the flash grenade. The way he saw her now was mostly love at first sight. The young vampire looked at his hands in disbelief, even if Roe tried to speak through him the most pacifist way. She had a point they used to be friends at some point, but that day with the laboratory happened - everything shifted. 

He had hurt a former friend, even a possible love interest. He had saved her from being sure she would reunite with her family. He wanted her happiness. He drank from her. The result of this mistake of remembrance he became a blood-sucking monster to get his own family back. 

“Commander Wieder wants to meet you.” A sentry spoke approaching them. They arrived inside greeted with unimpressed looks from Lotor’s generals. 

“That concludes today’s meeting.” Lotor’s British accent resonated in the room. He handed the USB key into Wieder’s hand, looking at the boys. “I hope for future cooperation with you two as well.” He completed. He motioned his generals to follow him. Once alone with the vampire commander, Wieder still had his back turned to his two subordinates.

“I am not-” 

“You lied.” Matsuhiro cut him off first. Wieder turned towards him. “She is alive and well. After the mission with Rebi, I knew something was off from the beginning. Why do you keep lying about Nakia being only a tool for Voltron!? That’s after you she is after!” 

“I am well aware of the fact she does.” Wieder replied with a flat tone. “What does it have to be linked with your mission?” 

“You asked me to kill her!” Ghanor pulled Matsuhiro back on his heels. Matsuhiro sneered at his leader. “...and I didn’t do it!” 

“I take responsibility as well, sir. They caught us off guard.” Ghanor added. 

“Killing them is your failure. I take it. At least the other part of the plan was remarkably done.” He said as he displayed the indigenous aliens in the confinement cells. “Maybe you can redeem yourselves when you cooperate with Lotor on his future project.” 

“Bastard,” Matsuhiro growled.

“What did you say?” Wieder looked at him with a frown. 

“Did I stutter?” Matsuhiro replied with a bittersweet smile. Ghanor jumped out of the way when Wieder punched the blonde into the gut sending him at the end of the room. Matsuhiro gasped for air, holding his stomach, coughing blood. 

“Not only you drank from her directly; you never had the permission to.” Wieder said, taking a fistful of his hair to hold him at his eye level. “I will make sure the druids have a nice little chat with you when we return to HQ. Zarkon needs some reports.” 

Ghanor looked in utter shock at the commander tossing the younger bloodsucker on the ground. 

“Gather the others. They will be having a formation for our next operation. Voltron is up to something, and Zarkon needs to be informed.” He watched Matsuhiro gaining his breath back. “Bring him to his room. No blood for a while.” 

“Understood.” Ghanor replied.

Log 026: Understanding faith


	12. Log 026: Understanding faith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Squad receives a short terme rest after their mission. They meet another mage coming from Nakia's reality, ready to take Isias's place for their work.

The girls received a well-deserved rest after this mission. Kolivan had the surprise of his life after hearing a galra fight where they were. Coran treated Clara and Nakia with bandages. The older altean had complimented both groups; the number of stones collected would suffice for the mega wormhole to function along with the plan. 

“The percentage of a malfunction in this reality might be close to 45.35631%,” Slav added. “If it hadn’t from the Squad’s help, this machinery wouldn’t sustain long against the galra fleet.” He said with four of his hands pointing upwards. “I have a feeling I have done this once already in the past, did I?” 

The girls looked at each other perplexed, shrugging, not knowing what to say. Slav narrowed his eyes. “I AM TELLING YOU ALL THE POSSIBILITIES OF THIS REALITY MAY HAVE OCCURRED SOMEWHERE ELSE! I AM NOT THAT CRAZY!!!” 

They backed up when he nearly pounced at them. Coran was standing next to Slav, clearing his throat. The caterpillar-like alien quickly got on the side. Coran gave a big group hug to the girls. “I am so proud of you girls.” He squeezed them tight against his frame, earning a few groans and a popping sound from Leila’s back. “You are all like my family now - even close to being my daughters!” He sniffled, so happy to be close to them. 

“Alright, Coran…” Clara pats his shoulder. “You are not breathing anymore.”

“Are there puppies in heaven…?” Roe questioned her faith, wheezing to find air. 

“My back is killing me, guys…” Leila commented, groaning slightly in pain.

“So...is mine,” Nakia added.

“I am so sorry!” He released them on the spot. They felt on their butt. Curse the Altean strength the girls thought. 

Coran excused himself from the group waving at them, dragging Slav behind him. They needed to put the final touches on the system. The help of Olkari gave a massive advantage with the creation of the crown teledav. They were smart, and their creativity helped them from the beginning. Granted, they vowed their alliance to Voltron after they rescued their planet from the Robeast the witch had sent after Voltron.

The girls sighed in relief. They decided to make this day more for themselves—some time to think for the future fight coming soon. 

  
  


“Child, I know how it feels to have so much faith put onto you. The stress eats your energy out, creating a deep abyss inside your heart.” Alfor’s AI stood on his holographic stand, looking down at the two persons present in the room. Nakia was sitting in the fake field of juneberries, making a flower crown out of them. She wore her pyjamas and Lance’s coat. Her face looked drained, dark circles under her eyes, sweating slightly. 

  
  


“Containing this spell on your own may put your life in danger one day.” Even if she had a proper sleep, she remained restless. Alfor was right; stress accumulated with a mission weighting a lifetime on her shoulders was hard. Her concentration on Zarkon’s downfall didn’t focus enough. 

“I want to protect them from this.” Nakia stopped her crown-making, putting it on her lap. “The Black Veil is so strong; I don’t want them to fall into darkness when their help needed on the battlefield.” Alfor listened intently to her words. His gaze locked on the Amnugan, sitting in front of him. Laneila was watching his master struggle with the crown-making. He decided to step in and stop her hands from shaking. 

“Even if…” Nakia started. “Laneila is the only one to know my struggles… I want to keep the problem away from them so they can focus on the priority of this reality.” She smiled sadly. Laneila mirrored the same with a little more worry, his hand gripping to reassure her. 

“You should go to sleep. The team will need you in a few hours for the final revision of the plan.” Laneila finally spoke. “I am not leaving you like this. If this has to put you down, we are both going down.” 

“Lanei-” Nakia tried to protest but only to be cut with Laneila’s finger on her lips. 

“I vowed my life to yours when I became your Sword. There’s no turning back, young lady. So, shush.” He replied with a frown. Nakia looked at him with puffy eyes. “You are going to bed young lady whether you like it or not.” Laneila deadpanned.

Nakia’s gaze dropped to the holographic field of juneberries. The unfinished crown disappeared in a static malfunction indicating the room would resume its long look. Laneila got up first, extending his hand to help her up. She obliged, pushing herself from the floor. She waved to the King’s AI, which he bowed her and Laneila. He kept his hand into hers, leading her back to her room. During that stroll, she lost herself in her thoughts about the second time she met Ghanor and Matsuhiro. Her former friends trapped in the laboratories still left a mental scar in her. Laneila had stopped walking when he saw she wasn’t responsive to his demand. 

“Nakia.” He asked firmly. 

“Y-yeah? What?” Nakia wiped her head up quickly, meeting a very concerned expression on her assistant’s face. He was worried, scared even. 

“You need some rest. You must get this spell off by someone highly qualified in this type of field. It will ruin your health. You know very well I can’t contain it forever.” He looked at putting his two hands on her shoulders. “Someday, it might even take over you.” His eyes half-lidded in worry, his hands squeezing her shoulders gently. 

“I’m sorry, Laneila…” Nakia apologized. “For the sake of this mission we have to do, I will keep it contained. Once we defeat Zarkon, we will go back home and get me cured. Laneila’s eyes soften at the promise. Nakia hugged Lance’s coat around her form. He had the gut feeling something might go wrong. He insisted for her to have some rest before the last briefing over the plan.

“Alright young lady, enough sulking.” Laneila sighed, pinching her earlobe. 

“ow...Ow!!” 

“Bed, you go.” He pushed her inside her room following quickly after.

  
  
  


Pushing the last button on the holographic keyboard, Leila looked through the computer’s data made by Pidge and Coran. Keeping track of all the things they had been through mission after another, she began to feel restless about the upcoming event. She slumped in Pidge’s seat, closing away the screen before her. 

“I thought Pidge would be here. What are you doing here?” A voice caught her attention, making sit straight in the chair. She turned around to meet the amethyst eyes of the Red Paladin. 

“Hey...Keith.” Leila mumbled. “What’s up?” 

“Countering my question with a question, eh?” Keith asked. “Answer first.” He frowned slightly.

Leila sighed, slumping down again. He sat against Coran’s work table. 

“I’ve been looking at the past data we gathered from our missions. Unlike you and the other paladins, I’ve compiled what we did as rescues, progress and creation. Mostly what  _ real  _ work we had been doing all this time.” She crossed her arms across her chest. “What about you? Why are you here? The meeting is later today.” She added. 

“I wanted to ask something to Pidge, but since you are here, I can ask you something about the Garrison?” Keith said with a hint of curiosity. 

Leila nodded. He sighed, putting some weight on his hand before speaking up again. 

“Hunk told me during the time I was out from the Garrison. You took my defence after something Lance said. Is it true?” He asked, looking into her eyes, searching for any answers. “Because if you did, it wasn’t necessary. I was already gone. It wouldn’t have bothered me much.” 

“As a friend, I care about you.” Keith looked at her in total chock. She rose from her seat, her hand against her chest. “Everyone counts. My friends are something I couldn’t regret to have. I have faith in them. I trust them enough to put my life in their hands and get the same in return.” 

“...” Keith couldn’t muster any words from what he just heard. Leila’s eyebrows furrowed. 

“As much as I care for you, Keith, it’s the same for what Shiro thinks of you to his eyes. You are valuable to the team. A team shoulder with each other. I don’t care what the others say about your heritage.” 

Keith crossed his arms in a defensive mechanism. Leila’s eyes sadden at his reaction. “You are who you are, Keith. You haven’t changed, even after learning the truth. If they don’t believe in you - Clara, Roe, Nakia, and I trust you with our hearts.” She walked around the Green Paladin’s chair, putting her hand on the headrest, her back to Keith. “If I know what it is to live the way your parents expected of you, abandoning you to their friend’s family and never coming to get you. It’s hard.” She didn’t deny Lance’s family welcomed her with open arms. It just hurt a lot, knowing your parents didn’t want to keep you for unknown reasons.

She walked through the bridge’s doors, leaving Keith alone looking at the floor. The doors closed. Leila wiped her eyes on her way down the corridor. The mice had come running down to hop on her shoulders, squeaking into her ears, giving tiny kisses on her cheeks. She giggled softly thanking them. 

  
  


“I knew you would be here.” Shiro’s voice caught Clara off guard. She had been looking at the sky from the star bridge. It was still the sunset out in the Olkari planet. The doors closed behind the Black paladin walking to meet her closer. “Remember when we spoke here last time?”

“Yeah, it was before Leila messed up with the lighting system.” Clara deadpanned, making the older male chuckle at the memory. 

“That’s right.” He placed a hand on Clara’s shoulder, earning a look from her. His grip reassured her presence. “I wanted to discuss something before we have the meeting later today. Do you have a moment ?”

“I guess I am free right now. You are already speaking to me.” She returned the smile, feeling a little smug. Shiro blinked twice before he once against made his laughter ring in the room.

“Alright, you caught me.” He said, scratching the back of his head. 

“What do you want to discuss, leader ?” Clara asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“We had the time to speak of what we went through during our time with the galra. If I knew you were on the same ship as me, I would have asked Ulaz to bring you with me back on Earth.” He said, changing the tone. “I wished I knew about the incident. I wished I could have saved you beforehand.” 

“Whoa whoa whoa!” Clara looked at him with a sad expression. She put her two hands on his forearms. “We didn’t know. We couldn’t go around this even if we did meet.” Clara squeezed her grip on his arm, caressing down to take his hand. “Things meant to be the way no one can change faith.” 

“I wished things were different.” Shiro spoke with a hint of truth. “If I hadn’t said yes for the Kerberos mission, we wouldn’t have ended this way.” 

“....and your disease would have had the better of you? No way.” Clara added. “Yes, things would be different. I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to see you again.” 

“Clara…” Shiro spoke softly. 

“I wouldn’t get the chance to hear your answer before I was gone.” Clara let go of his hand only for him to catch hers. Clara quickly looked at him. His grey hues were boring into hers. 

“I am not going back on my words Clara, and I promised you to go back on Earth with you.” The Black paladin said while squeezing her hand slightly with his prosthetic one. “The more I think about it, the more my feelings get jumbled up. I am fighting inside to see if you meant to be by my side. I see you as a strong, determined woman who made through her tough times.” 

“You opened my eyes, Shiro… That’s because of it.” Clara said. 

“Open once more.” Shiro looked at her eyes. “Because you opened mine a long time ago. I think I am in love with you, Clara.” 

“Wait- what?!” Clara mumbled, a sudden blush pouring her cheeks.

“It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way. It’s been so long. But I would still be happy for each other’s lives, you know.” He explained, gripping his hand gently. 

Clara’s eyes half-lidded softly. She avoided his gaze. She knew Shiro wouldn’t press her to speak out the words she kept inside for so long. If he did ask her was because he cared. He didn’t want her to feel bad or threaten by speaking up. Her feelings have never been such a mess before. Her feelings had started to resurface because of his sudden confession.

“Stop being such a sap, Shiro.” Clara said, taking her hand off his grasp. She smiled with a frown, the blush still evident on her cheeks. The leader of Voltron tilted his head, confused. “Come on. You know already, I wouldn’t give up on that occasion now we are in the clear.” She chuckled, putting her hand on her shoulder, the other supporting her elbow. Her fingers played with her ponytail. “I wouldn’t mind giving it a try.” She said, looking at him. 

“Are you sure-” 

“Did I stutter!?” She exclaimed suddenly agitated. Shiro is surprised by her tone. He couldn’t muster the time to speak out words when he felt a pair of arms around his stature and ahead against his chest. “I am sure…” She replied solemnly. 

Shiro looked down at the young woman, his arms remaining still. He smiled in return to the hug around her form. Clara’s grip tightens a little, taking the time to inhale Shiro’s scent. She felt so secure now that he had finally broken her out of her shell back at the Galaxy Garrison.

Shiro and Clara pulled from each other but remaining close. They stared into each other’s eyes for a little while longer before their face got closer. Pressing their lips together, they kissed softly. Their eyes closed; they stayed like this one good minute feeling the moment. 

They pulled from each other, their eyes looking into each other. “I love you, Clara. After all, this is over; I will be together very long.” He kissed her forehead. 

“I love you t-” Clara heard the door opening behind them. She saw the blonde standing there with the mice on her shoulders. Clara’s eye twitched at sight. “Don’t tell me-” 

“N-No this time, I am truly innocent! I came to pick you up! Coran wants to see us!” Leila justified her intrusion. Clara sighed, her shoulders relaxing. Shiro chuckled. “I heard you two confessed, that was kinda cute.” 

A vein popped on Clara’s head. “Oh, that’s it! GET OVER HERE BLONDIE.” Leila ran off down the alley, trying to avoid Clara’s grip. Shiro leaned against the threshold, sighing amused of the scene. 

“LEILA, GET YOUR QUIZNAKING ASS OVER HERE.” Shiro’s tranquillity broke when he heard his new girlfriend curse. 

“Clara, language!” He yelled from the corridor. 

  
  


“...agh…” Roe mumbled, her chin resting against her folded arms. She was outside the castle of lions on one of the balconies giving a beautiful view of the sunset. The sun was reflecting against the Olkari buildings. Each one of them was starting to light up, the night soon coming in a few hours. She heard the doors open behind her. She looked over her shoulder to meet the Demelvian walking towards her. 

“Oh boy, girl, weren’t you supposed to be sleeping?” Roe asked, looking at the bags under Nakia’s eyes. “I thought I saw Laneila kicking you in your room earlier. How long did you sleep?” 

“Two hours…” Nakia yawned with her hand over her mouth. 

“Why didn’t you-” 

“Lance,” Nakia replied softly. “He wanted to compare his form against Laneila, but it turned out into a full display competition. So, I just left.” She shrugged. “Why I couldn’t continue to sleep.” 

“Fufu.” Nakia blinked, confused at the brunette. “Both are competing for your affection, you silly goose.” She tapped Nakia’s back, playfully. 

“I..huh..mean…” The mage started.

“I’m kidding. I’m pretty sure they are cool with each other. I mean, they do look alike somehow. Laneila shows a little more skin than Lance does, which means they are very similar.

“Similar?” Nakia asked.

“Similar as they care for you very much. You matter for both no matter what you do or say, and the boys always have something to compare.” 

“That goal would be more realistically proven if they were rivals, Roe.” Nakia looked at her with a funny look. “That aside…” She cleared her throat. “I wanted to ask you something.” Nakia put her arms against the rail, looking at the scenery.

“Go ahead and shoot.” Roe mirrored the same move, with her head looking at the mage. Nakia was fiddling with her fingers gently. 

“When we were on Yezurn, Pidge came to our rescue, do you remember that?” 

“Yeah, I remember a little. Why?”

“Two entities appeared by our side to repel the two beasts away.” Nakia joined her hands together. “Same happened when we were on the planet yesterday. This time you manifested a white spirit next to you. It was a white lion, Roe… That is not a joke.” 

The brunette looked at her in utter shock. How would she have done that? She doesn’t have any magic as Nakia does or even special altean powers Clara had. A sudden flash made her realize something when she had awoken from her fall on Yazurn. A lion spirit had given her the chance to meet up with her friends again. She put her hand against her cheek, trying to figure out if it was a dream or a reality. If Nakia confirmed the presence of spirits, that meant something, right? Right??

“Roe.” Nakia touched Roe’s shoulder, startling her from her thoughts. 

“I’m okay… I’m okay. Just thinking is all..” She mumbled with an awkward smile. “You may be right, Nakia… Your special eyes must haven’t deceived you. If you can see spiritual energy, maybe something is wrong with both of us.” 

“Nothing is wrong with us,” Nakia said, putting her two hands on her friend’s shoulders. “We are just, I guess, apart from something occurring in the future.” 

_ What future, though? _

“There you are.” Coran’s voice rang when he appeared with Clara and Leila on the balcony. “I’ve noticed Lance and his ‘brother’ competing for an unknown reason in your room, and I assumed you left somewhere else to find peace.” 

“That’s kinda...that.” Nakia smiled a bit tired. 

“Come on, blondie. Enough with your little eavesdropping.” Clara said with an annoyed tone. Coran turned his head over his shoulder to greet the stranger joining him. He looked at the girls having their time together. 

“Are they..?” The voice sounded feminine, with a slight accent, similar to Nakia’s. 

“That would be the team, yes. One of the girls must know you already, right?” Coran asked, his eyes falling on a young woman in the late thirties. Her outfit was a mixture of Asian and English looking. Her long two-toned hair, framed her form, tied into a small side bun. 

Her grey hues felt on the four members of the squad. Leila faked a kiss to tease Clara even more until she saw the fist knocking her out cold. Roe and Nakia remained on the side while Clara shook Leila back to sleep with some threatening swears. Coran cleared his throat to get the girls’ attention. 

“Girls, I know it was meant to be your relaxing day. But since King Alfor’s ai is busy helping Pidge and Hunk with the castle’s defences, you will have a little emergency meditation course.” 

“Why meditate now? Isn’t it a little bit too late?” Clara asked, rather harshly. Leila had recovered quickly after the rough shaking Clara had done. 

“Your cooperation with the next mission will be valuable for the team.” The woman said. “I am taking Isias’s place while he is taking care of an emergency back at the BOM base.” 

“Wait, you are…” Leila started. 

“Beautiful,” Roe said with an enthusiastic voice with her two hands together. 

“Why, thank you.” The woman gently smiled at the brunette, making her blush happily. “And you know who I am, do you not, Nakia?” 

Leila, Clara and Roe’s eyes felt on Nakia instantly. The mage was standing a bit shocked by the revelation. She blinked, gulped a lump in her throat. She nodded. 

“Yes, Master Tsillah.” Nakia said with a shy voice. 

“MASTER?!” The girls exclaimed. 

  
  


“Come on now.” Coran played with his mustache. “Mrs. Tsillah will be giving you the meditation course for the next hour before we go to the final meeting. This exercise may turn quite useful if Voltron has a problem against Zarkon’s fight. I hope you understand.” 

“Yes, Coran.” The girls replied altogether.

“Off to the training deck, you go then.” Coran hurried them back inside quickly. After they were gone, he sighed to himself. Tsillah was still standing to them. 

“Is there anything wrong, Mr. Coran?” Tsillah asked out of curiosity. 

“May I ask something?” Coran replied she nodded. “ Do they have the right place in this world to be a part of such an important event? I can’t stop but feel sorry about them. I want them to be a part of something great, but they act only as of the shadow of the paladins. I don’t know what to do or even what to say. They help me around; they do whatever they asked. But what if…” 

“I am aware of this kind of situation for many centuries now.” Tsillah looked at Coran with a soft smile. “Not only will they be a part of something even greater than you expected, but you will also regain something you lost a long time ago. It may not be now, but very soon, a meeting will put faith back in their eyes and help the rest of the universe.” 

“Mrs…” 

“Call me Tsillah, that will do.” She left the balcony towards the training deck.

Log 027: Meditation


	13. Log 027: Connections of the future

“Alright ladies.” Tsillah approached them with the pad Coran was carrying with him earlier. She pressed two buttons - one to close the lights and the second to open the holographic system around the room. Pressing another button four little lights appeared in front of the girls. Teal, orange, light grey and purple. “These are your lights. The purpose of this exercise is practically the same as you would actually do with the King’s AI.” 

She explained the purpose of their teamwork will be useful in case Voltron wouldn’t be able to continue. Their nearest battle might be the most difficult one they will face so far, they needed to be prepared. 

“What about Isias? I thought he was the one being a part of the plan with the other galra inside the headquarters of Zarkon.” Nakia stated. 

“Isias had to take care of his post back at the Blade of Marmora base.” Tsillah replied, taking in the notes from Coran. 

“Why then?” Nakia pressured. “Why are you here? How?” The girls looked at Nakia a bit taken aback by her interrogation towards her master. 

“Caireen. The mage who left for the first time from Demelvia to end up the other side like you left the specific instructions to travel here. Isias caught in time before I forced landed on a planet of Zingus system, as you call it. I was already aware of something going on the other side but as strong with Wieder implied, I had to step in for this fight. Maybe have a chance to put him down if we ever met.” 

“Why not act now?” Nakia frowned. “I thought I was the one chosen for this mission, why sending someone else?!” Nakia snapped. Tsillah returned the same gaze towards the mage which made her flinch. Nakia sat on the ground quickly apologizing. 

“There are things from the Kageruna household your mother never told you about Nakia. This is the part where I get in if my own ancestor gets in the way. As for you four, you are a part of this mission altogether. None of you is left aside. Understood?” Tsillah looked at the other members of the Squad. They quickly nodded. 

“...” Nakia stayed silent for a short period of time. 

“I want you to close your eyes.” Tsillah spoke walking around the group. “You will be experimenting the same phenomena from when you first summoned your energy as an astral apparition.” Her voice continued on. The girls closed their eyes, taking each other’s hands. They formed a small circle on the floor. They remembered what they managed to create an astral version of Voltron back on Mondaine’s planet, fighting the Robeast sent by Zarkon at that time.

“Guys! Look!” Roe’s voice echoed. “We are here again.” She said with excitment with a glee expression. 

“Seems like we managed it just fine.” Clara said, echoeing in the void. 

“Alright, let’s see what we have to do. Mrs. Tsillah said based on our ‘lights’ we have to put our energy together to connect. We did it on that planet once, it should be easy to manifest again right? If we are on good terms, it shouldn’t be a problem.” 

“Nakia, you start.” Clara looked at the mage, spacing out. “You were the starting point, you should give us the finishing line towards Roe.” She extended her hand towards her. Nakia looked at her hand, rethinking about what Tsillah just said about Wieder. If they had to act on a plan they were a part of, they needed to cooperate. Everyone has their own part to play. 

“Right.” Nakia gripped Clara’s hand, Leila’s into Roe’s ending into hers again. They looked under them where the paladins of old were standing in the same position as them. The five lions lined up behind them with two extra orbs shining with a bright and dark color. 

The lions leaned in, bowing towards their presence, standing right up to let their roar ring into the void. Light surrounded the five lions. They all set straight up to the night sky, flying with five coloured lines. Two orbs of colour flew around them ending into the sky with two sparkling stars. Four stars in total to represent the squad association to Voltron in the team. 

Feeling their link growing stronger by second, the energy put a force to protect each other no matter what happens. They heard an echo from the void asking them to wake up. 

“Congratulations, you made it.” Tsillah praised the four girls still sitting. Her two hands joined together, looking happy of her work. “Not only you have mastered a high level of channelling energy between you, but also increased the chances of summoning. If you keep this link between all of you, your bond will grow even stronger. Maybe someday have special abilities coming with it, we will never know.” The Demelvian master winked. She received a small notification from the pad she held. 

“Time for the briefing. Get suit up.” Tsillah said. “Allura needs everyone on the deck soon.” The Squad nodded leaving quickly for their rooms. 

  
  
  


“Thank you Ryner for all of you and Olkari for assisting us. Once we defeat Zarkon, it is my hope we continue to unite our forces and rebuild the once-great coalition that my father, King Alfor, began.” Allura spoke in front of the Olkari community, standing alongside the Squad, Kolivan and Coran. The Olkari cheered on her speech making a smile appear on her features. Coran was the next to speak up.

“Princess, it’s time.” He announced. The Squad went back inside to their station where the paladins would usually sit. Shiro made sure the team was ready with their lions to grab the wormhole crown for their departure. Every lion bit down an edge, securing the gigantic construction in place. He also confirmed to Allura they were ready to launch. 

“Charging main turbine.” Allura said. 

“Everything is clear around us princess.” Nakia typed on the holographic screen. 

“Sky’s clear.” Clara added. 

It took a moment to set a trajectory in space. Standing around the bridge, the team of Voltron and the Blade of Marmora members awaited the explanation to begin. Shiro stepped up the pedestal. 

“Alright, guys, listen up. I will use the Black Lion to lure Zarkon’s fleet to our current location and make sure he is within the teladav’s area of effect. Keeping the teludav hidden behind the space-fold until the last possible second is essential. We can count on you, right, Slav?” Shiro looked at the alien standing next to Pidge.

“Absolutely, I will be fine.” He said with a little confidence. His expression changed to a thoughtful one. “I am not sure about the gravity generator though.” 

“What? What was that last thing?” Hunk asked. 

“Hiding a ship is one thing, but I’ve never had to build a gravity generator for something this large before.” Slav continued with his hand under his beck. “I know it’ll work, but I’m not sure for how long.” 

“Well, that’s a risk we will have to take.” Shiro said. “Once Zarkon’s ship is in position, Kolivan and Antok will coordinate with Thace. Together, they’ll take down Zarkon’s security system and upload the virus.” 

Pidge spoke proudly of the virus like a sitting doo-flag. She looked at the others who were perplexed of her word play. She waved it off. 

“We’ll wormhole Zarkon 500 millions years away and he will be in the Yggiz Galaxy before he knows what hits him.” The old altean grabbed the simulation with one hand before sending it across the room, breaking a light or two. Nakia and Laneila had just docked to avoid the throw. 

“What about Thace and Isias?” Shiro questioned. 

“Thace gave his last communication to the base to Isias. From what we learned, he should be in position by now. We should be hearing from him soon.” Kolivan replied. Antok and other members from the Blade of Marmora stood next to him; one in particular, seem to be looking at the girls like they knew them. The Squad took a moment to try figuring out. The girls looked at the signature tail. It was Mauve!

“Let’s get ready.” Shiro looked at the princess before she looked at Tsillah and Nakia. 

“Nakia, Tsillah. I hope we can make use of your ethernanos energy if we are in pinch. It would be highly useful if the particle barrier weakens.” 

“You can count on us.” Nakia said with Laneila bowing to the princess. Allura nodded. 

A moment after Shiro took off with the Black Lion, everyone remained in position. Leila and Clara had taken their seat to analyze the field and Roe was still with the others taking a rest. Shiro’s face appeared in the main screen. 

“Zarkon took the bait. He’s got my location.” Shiro said through the mic. “Is everybody in position?” 

“We haven’t heard from Thace. He was supposed to contact us two vargas ago.” Kolivan said. 

“He could have been captured.” Antok added. 

“Or killed. We need to abort the mission immediately.” Kolivan confirmed. 

“Abort? No. We cannot back away now.” Allura interrupted. 

“The Blade of Marmora doesn’t take chances. This is how we survived for so long.” 

“It’s held you back. Your caution is why Zarkon is still in power.” Allura said. 

“We would rather wait than jeopardize everything. Besides, it’s too late to get someone else on the inside.” Kolivan looked on his side to see Keith asking to take a chance to infiltrate Zarkon’s ship. Allura remained surprised by her proposition. 

“What? No way!” Leila added. “If you go just like that, it would be suicide.” She got up from her seat. Keith seem to avoid her eye contact, while he asked for Pidge’s support with the cloaking device. The Squad remained silent. Leila wasn’t having it. Allura looked away. 

Pidge asked Leila’s assistance for the installation of the cloaking device. Pidge pat her back for a moment. Leila locked the device in place. “You two are already done?” Keith’s voice rang in the back. “Can I have… a moment with her?” Keith eyed Leila. The blonde was putting the engine, approving the work. 

“Sure. Get all the time you want.” Pidge said as she left the room. 

“I want to apologize earlier.” Keith started. “Lance told me everything about his family and you being a part of it. Sure, this is great and all, but why take my side ? I know friends are meant to care for each other, but I have my walls up.” 

“Not everyone is ready to pass the next step.” Leila said, cleaning her hands. “It takes time to heal. You have found your family Keith. Shiro is your family.” She clarified. “If he didn’t help you out, you wouldn’t have made it this far. He is a great leader we look up to and a great brother figure we can count on.” She added. 

She got up to look at him. Her instinct got the better of her. She hugged him, putting her head against his left shoulder pad. Keith returned the hug a second later. 

  
  


“Allura told me the same thing you said earlier this morning,” Keith said. “You were right…” He ended. Leila looked up at him. “I am who I am. My heritage doesn’t define how I was already.” 

  
  


“Promise one thing, Keith.” Leila asked, her hands resting on his forearms. 

“Come back to us. Please.” Her eyes were filled with worry and concern. Keith looked at her with a softer look, his eyebrows still frowning. 

“I will.” Keith replied. 

  
  
  


“Let’s get the generator running.” Coran suddenly exclaimed. “Shiro should be on his way. If the calculations are correct, they should around in the next tick.”

“Keith has successfully infiltred the ship of Zarkon.” Roe announced to Kolivan. “He is on the mic.” 

“Okay, Keith, you’ve made it to the lower communication deck. Head left down that corridor. Based on the schematic from Thace, there should be a large door up ahead. This is the central hub of the Galra fleet.” 

“I see it.” Keith replied through the mic. Kolivan looked at his members and the Squad. He nodded. Shiro had given his position fighting the Galra fleet. He wouldn’t be able to hold much longer. The Green, Blue and Yellow lions appeared just in time. Shiro sighed of relief. The fight wasn’t still in the bag. 

Roe appeared on Shiro’s screen. “Zarkon’s ship is leaving the teludav’s area of effect.” The brunette said, typing down the keyboard. “You have to bring it back where it’s supposed to be or else…. we might just go POOF!” She expressed with a great emotion.

“How you two are holding up down there?” Nakia asked Clara. 

“If he wasn’t all the panicky we would manage this thing quite well. Quit running around Slav! I’m here to help you dimwit!!” She yelled at the alien running pass the camera.

“The gravity generator won’t maintain power for very long. If it goes down, we’re just going to be uncloaked in open space.” He pushed Clara out of the way to express his worry to the princess. 

Clara quickly grabbed him off the controls. The engine power went down instantly. Both looked at the generator in disbelief. 

“I hate it when I’m right…” Slav said.

“Leila!” Allura looked at the blonde typing away. It took a matter of minute until Allura said she would beging to power up the teludav. 

“The power is down! Downloading the virus now!” Leila smashed the button down. The countdown was down to zero. Allura positioned the teludav right above Zarkon’s ship. 

“We are ready princess.” The quintessence filled the room with a beautiful light. The teludav emitted a huge wormhole, pushing the ship of the galra emperor inside. Pushing the trusters to their maximum, Coran put the ship into position. Tsillah and Nakia were providing Allura the least extra energy they could muster to have the plan working. Allura collapsed on her pedestal. Roe caught her before she hit the ground. 

“Got the princess!” Roe announced happy but nervous. 

“Hold on everyone!” Coran announced. The castle of lions went under the wormhold to follow closetly Zarkon’s headquarters. The lions were right behind them. They popped out the other side of the wormhole, in one piece. 

“We did it! I can’t believe we did it!” Pidge cheered. Shiro told her to celebrate too soon, they had to take down Zarkon down once and for all. The five lions joined together to form the legendary warrior of the galaxy. 

“See, I knew we could do it!” Slav said proudly. 

“Says the one nearly choking the life out of me ten minutes ago! No wonder Shiro gets pissed with you!” Clara said with her usual scowling expression. Slav looked at her with a suggestive look. “What?” 

“You are just proud your newly made lover is just having the best time of his life on the battlefield.” How did he knew about their relationship?! She had to shut him up. They were both caught off guard with the sudden shaking from the ship. 

“What’s going on?” Clara’s face appeared in Coran’s dash. 

“They are attacking us!” Coran declared. He grunted by the other blast. The damage was minimum but the particle barrier wouldn’t last long. Tsillah pulled Nakia along to use their energy against the walls. The castle engulfed itself with a purple barrier. 

Back aboard the galra command center, Haggar was trying to keep the end. The druids followed her to the ceremony room where she stood in the middle. They all gathered their lifeforce to cast a spell. Releasing the flash of dark magic, it went directly for Voltron’s formation. The paladins were screaming in agony. The spell broke the formation instantly. The lions floated around, power down. The Castle of Lions also caught the flow of the energy putting the engine down. 

Tsillah and Nakia’s energy shattered sending them on their butt. “Paladins! Please respond!” Coran called through the mic. “Quiznak… the system is down and the communication as well.

Allura got up slowly from Roe’s arms, putting her weight on the two rods. She sighed, starting the Programmation manually. They didn’t have any other choice. Leila approached Coran’s work station. She typed away. 

“Leila. It won’t work this way.” Coran pushed her off, but she remained there. 

“Not unless if I give a try. There’s a code Alfor showed me during the individual class. If we power up from your station, the energy meter should be giving a boost strong enough to get the communication running. If not, we have to reboot manually.” A small screen popped. The holographic system bugged a little. 

“Great thinking, Leila.” Alfor’s AI praised. “I was sure you wouldn’t be able to understand my classes, but it seem you did.” Leila smirked. 

“We got the king on our side. Let’s see if Zarkon will be happy to see this.” Leila pressed the button. “The castle will function for fifteen minutes or so. It gives us the opportunity to get the communication back online.” She looked at everyone. “If we pass through this, I get the chance for a good long deserved bath!” She whined. 

“Let’s get this thing running then.” Roe stepped up. “We are here to help.” 

“Count me in too.” Clara approached in the bridge. “Slav will be fine for now. Right now, we have to put the witch down and defend the castle.” 

“GUYS!” Leila opened the visual. “What the heck is that?!” 

“Oh no..” Coran mumbled. 

“Zarkon got his own version of Voltron… That’s unfair!” Roe cried. “What can we do!?” 

“We fight.” Nakia announced. “We protect them no matter the cost. We are here.” The Squad agreed. “Princess, when you are ready.” Nakia pulled out her sword. 

“Tsillah. I will require an extra help for the fire power.” Allura asked. “If you may.” 

“It will be an honor, princess.” Tsillah got ready. “It’s not the first time I manage that stunt.” 

“GIRLS, LET’S PROTECT VOLTRON.” Coran yelled. The Squad cheered on. 

Log 028: Shatter.


	14. Log 028 - Shatter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The outcome of the last fight against Zarkon cost the loss of two close friends.

“Wieder,” Haggar spoke to the vampire standing above them with his team of druids. “You will board the Castle of Lions as soon as they are exposed. I need you to take down their team personally.”

“Understood,” Wieder called out his team. They walked down to another pod big enough to cause damage from the outside. With the other ships being out of reach, he had to find a way around the system to get inside Voltron’s main command bridge. He looked at Haggar, casting another charging spell. 

“Ghanor, Matsuhiro. Let’s get going.” Another woman followed in suit. “Be ready to face them, and we don’t know what they have planned. I will take care of Nakia, personally.” He smirked, walking towards the ship deck.

  
  


“We are going in!” Allura announced. The ship flew straight up to Zarkons mech heading for the Black Lion. Coran pressed the beam activation button. Everyone screamed in unison with the firepower increased by the Demelvian magic of Tsillah and Nakia. The beam hit full power on Zarkon, which he didn’t see coming at him. A part of the ray got deflected by his armour sending it through a cloud of inactive galra fleet. The Galra emperor hit the wall of his headquarters with a loud boom through space. A smoke cloud appeared around the mech he had within his control. 

The Voltron crew stopped breathing. “Is it over?” Leila asked. The alarm of the castle rang the alert. They saw the mecha getting up with a mere scratch. He jumped from his previous landing point heading straight for the castle of lions. Allura had the energy barely to produce another barrier. Leila was beside her, helping her to stay up. Nakia felt the eyes of her friend, and she nodded. 

“I will take the hit.” Nakia declared, making Coran look at her. “Activate what’s left of the energy of the castle, I will manage the rest.” 

“Are you sure about this?” Tsillah asked. “This is a task a higher graded mage of the lineage can do.” 

“Laneila’s with me.” The male confirmed his presence. “Sorry for the floor.” 

“Impact in…” Nakia got ready with Laneila’s sword. “3” She looked at Zarkon’s beam charge from his chest plate. “2” Nakia dug the sword into the castle bridge’s floor. “1.” 

“KAOS ARCADIA!” Nakia yelled. A magic circle appeared beneath her feet and another cast on the castle front. The hit was hard on the particle barrier of the castle, already fading away. Nakia forced it to stay with her ability of projection. She deflected the beam into another inactive galra fleet set. 

“What is this?” Zarkon questioned himself. “A magic barrier?” His eyes narrowed. “Let’s see if they take another one at a higher rate.” He pushed two digits on his board; the charge was harder to set. The beam hit again, making Nakia grunt. The forehead started to bleed. 

“Squad of Voltron.” Zarkon’s face appeared on their screen. “You won’t stand a chance. The Black Lion will be mine after all this childish fight.” 

“We will see about that, old man!” Clara yelled. Roe, Leila and Clara put their hands on Nakia’s shoulders. “You have something you will never have.” 

“Teamwork and the will to fight!” Roe added. Nakia closed her eyes. As they all did, quintessence filled their bodies. The beam hit something else than the castle of lions. Zarkon’s eyes drifted from the set of lions still inactive back to the castleship. His eyes opened in pure shock seeing the astral Voltron standing in front of the altean ship. 

“Impossible,” Zarkon muttered. 

“Paladins.” Allura noticed the lions getting the energy back. Shiro’s speech produced each paladin’s motivation to fight. They aligned to form Voltron once again. The Astral one dissipated from the space leaving the castle open at any attack again. “Girls, get ready to regroup. We don’t have time to rest- URGH!”

The ship shook profoundly from another attack of the galra witch. The same spell unleashed, putting the castle’s energy down to zero once more. In the dark, the gravity generator was entirely out, leaving the crew floating freely around the room. The ship rumbled on the side. 

“Even with the power out, we can see what’s going on with our gear. That is not a joke. Someone is trying to board the ship from the lower deck of the castle.” Leila said, checking her map. 

“We have to stop the witch,” Allura said. “Leila, you will remain here with Coran. Try to restart the system of the castle so we can leave as soon as we can.” Leila nodded. Allura turned to Tsillah, Clara and two other members of the Blade of Marmora. “I will need your assistance to stop the sorceress.” They all agreed, but only one asked to stay. She removed her mask, revealing her face to the others. 

“Mauve!” Nakia called with a sigh of relief. The woman winked at the Squad. 

“I will provide support here with Kolivan,” Mauve added. “If we stop boarding, we will need to escape when the opportunity is there.” 

Leila and Coran proceeded for a manual lockdown of the bridge and the engine room. Allura left for the galra command center with a smaller pod followed by the team. 

“I wish you all luck,” Coran said before he closed the door. Roe, Mauve, Nakia and Kolivan proceeded for the boarding galra team in the lower deck.

Passing by one of the windows, Roe and Nakia looked at five distinctive lines of colours flying around the mech Zarkon was controlling. The fight was fierce. Nakia pulled Roe along to follow the others. In another window, they sighed of relief to see Voltron fighting back the monstrosity with the same amount of power. They had to hurry. 

“You need to hurry,” Kolivan called the girls down the hallway. “We don’t have much time.” 

Roe had passed by her door to let know yuppers she was okay. The whining crushed her heart, but she had to move on; for the team at least. 

Proceeding to open the door manually, they hid on each side of it. The girls looked inside to see two shadows slowly passing by. As soon as they popped out of the door, Mauve’s tail smacked them onto the ground - they were two galra grunts. The ship moved once again, the gravity back aboard. They all landed roughly on the floor. 

Ghanor shot a few arrows towards the Blade of Marmora leader, deflected with his ceremonial blade. Mauve had cornered another one of them. 

Nakia noticed the blonde vampire moving faster than their last encounter. Nakia and Roe got caught by the neck from behind. 

“Such boredom.” The voice echoed into their earlobes. “Humans are pathetic.” The girls looked at each other, nodding, slacking their bodies to make a backflip, pushing the blue-haired woman to the ground. She was another elf from Demelvia - probably someone Wieder had recruited after the raid in the past. Nakia didn’t know her. The stunt pulled by Roe and Nakia made her stability. She looked up to see two flying bodies towards her, pushing them back in the corridor. 

Mauve’s tail swiped backward once more. Kolivan and Mauve nodded to each other, getting their ceremonial blades ready. “Call reinforcements!” Matsuhiro yelled. Roe was the first to notice the sentries running towards them. Nakia took out Laneila’s sword of its sheath, ready to battle. The brunette did the same with the smaller twin blades activating from their little gadgets. They both deflected the attacks with their shield. 

Mauve stroke a bunch of the sentries. Some of them had cornered the two human girls before the shaft entrance. “GIRLS BEHIND YOU!” 

“Too late.” Wieder’s voice rang into Nakia’s eardrums. She gasped when she felt the hand of the vampire around her throat from behind. Roe caught in the same position. They both dropped their weapons onto the ground, clanging repetitively. “I finally got the chance to see you a little closer than last time, Nakia. Let’s see it will work in your favour  _ this  _ time.” 

  
  
  


Taking the easy way in, Allura, Clara and the others managed their way to the energy center where the witch stood. They disposed of their pods to land on the magic circle currently in use. Clara took out her staff and got ready to fight.

  
  


Haggar wasn’t happy with their sudden appearance out of the blue. Something needed to do; the group had to take care of it. The druids flew towards the two Blade of Marmora members only to be stopped by Allura and Clara. They took the hit pretty hard only to notice the quintessence having nothing but a good effect on both women. Clara looked at her hands in surprise.

  
  


Clara eyed the Demelvian master, fighting against the witch with brutal magic. It wasn’t anything like she had seen compared to Nakia. The blows flew in every direction. Haggar concentrated a massive ball of energy to shoot it towards Tsillah. Tsillah used the black magic against the Galran magic-user pushing her down. 

“ARGH!” Allura looked up to see one of the BOM members killed by a druid. She quickly used her staff to send the druid into a pillar of energy, which Tsillah was casting against Haggar. Clara took a moment to jump on the last floating board.

  
  


Haggar gave her all to release the power she had. She was cut short by Tsillah’s retaliation, sending her backward. Clara jumped in front of her to hit her in the stomach. “I’m going to make you pay for everything you’ve done, witch!” The blow made the woman roll onto the ground, making her lose her hood. Allura quickly approached Tsillah, standing next to her. Haggar looked at her.

“WHO ARE YOU?!” Haggar yelled at the woman standing right in front of her, engulfed with menacing magic energy. 

  
  


“I am the daughter of the most powerful mage of shadows across history. Unlike me, you are merely a pawn thinking better of yourself.” Tsillah looked down at the sorceress. “Stay away from the future shadow paladin.” She warned, making the evil female look up at her, revealing her face entirely to Allura. 

“You are Altean? How is this possible?” Allura asked with a shock written on her face. “This is not-” 

“ARR!” Haggar growled, getting up, casting a spell to vanish out. The three women had shielded their eyes. Tsillah had stopped the magic use; she staggered a bit before being caught by Clara on the way. 

“We need to head back. There’s not much time before the ship reactivates.” They all agreed to leave for the Castle of Lions in time. 

  
  


Wieder chuckled, looking at the two human girls struggling around his grip. Kolivan was already busy with the two other males who managed to get up from their previous posture. Nakia was looking at Roe and Wieder from her right eye. The lack of air compromised her vision. She noticed Roe go suddenly limp. 

“What a shame. Humans are so weak.” He commented. He felt a sudden surge of power coming from Roe’s body. Her body got enveloped by light, markings growing on her face. Her eyes opened, shining bright. It made the vampire’s grip around her neck go loose by the numbness of his arm. Nakia took the opportunity to pull her weight forward, putting him in another position slightly more hard to handle, she broke his wrist to get out of his reach. He cursed under his breath. 

“If you think this will work on me..!” He grabbed Roe from behind. She attempted to grab his arm and secure it in his back. 

“GIRLS!” Mauve approached running. Wieder took this advantage to pull the human up and throw her into the BOM female, making them fall on the floor. “Are you alright?” 

“Yeah… but Nakia is more in danger than I would be.” Roe exclaimed, all in panic. The markings had grown dimmer from her skin and disappeared completely. Nakia avoided Wieder’s hand just in time. She sided stepped to get off his path. His hand got engulfed into magic to infuse his strength. 

The Demelvian mage took a stance while the other had already set a course on her. Dodging Wieder’s grab, she made a backflip kicking him right under the chin, sending him backward and, completing it with her fist in his face. He counter-attacked with his elbow in her stomach, instantly cutting her air out of her lungs. His hand engulfed in magic went purposely for her head. A blade was thrown into his forearm by Mauve, still standing in her throwing position. 

“One more move.” She warned. “Your head is gone.” Her voice was threatening. 

“As if.” Wieder threw a massive ball of energy towards them. Nakia had taken her breath back. His attention turned back by a sudden shock through the body. In haste, he turned around to see the human female deploying a full magic spell to freeze him. His legs were stuck. 

“ **_Now!_ ** ” Nakia heard Laneila’s voice through her head. 

Nakia leaped forward. “AAAAAAA!” The blade passed through the chest plate on both sides. She stood there, getting some blood droplets on her face. Wieder was too shocked by the sudden impact to think. He had to get out. “NO WAY!” Nakia warned. “In hell, I’m letting you live! You deserve what you did!” She pushed further. 

“Or does he?” Wieder questioned back. His hand grabbed the base of Laneila’s sword. Nakia’s eyes widened in surprise. She took the reflex to get the sword out only to be stopped by Wieder’s strength. His hand grabbed her face. She yelled to let go. “This is the end of your  _ assistant _ .” 

The sword cracked the more his grip tightened. “NOO!” 

“GRAB SOMETHING! WE ARE MOVING OUT! ZARKON IS DEFEATED.” Coran’s voice rang in the communication system of the castle. 

“I got Shiro, let’s get out of here!” Keith said through his mic. “Princess, you have a go.” 

“Say goodbye.” Nakia’s eyes shrunk when the blade shattered in two. A lump went through her throat; the voice she wanted to use didn’t process the event. “Finally. This is the moment- URGH!!!!” 

Wieder got tailed in the ribcage, dropping the sword broken in two on the floor. Mauve quickly shut the shaft to send the group into space. Allura activated the wormhole on time to let them escape. Nakia took the broken sword in her hands.

Her tears didn’t stop falling. She could just only call out his name out.

**“LAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”**

Leila, Roe and Clara felt their connection weakening by Nakia’s voice. They quickly made their way towards her to see the scene unfold before them. The mage folded in two hugging the broken sword.

**LOGBOOK 2 END.**

**ARCHIVED.**

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**_Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smyth DATA MEMORY SYSTEM._ **

**_REBOOT._ **

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CLICK.


End file.
